


Heroes of the Absurd

by Petersreallypretty



Series: Heroes of the Absurd [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2020-10-14 04:56:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 58,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20595065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petersreallypretty/pseuds/Petersreallypretty
Summary: What happened to Sora after he faded away in Destiny Islands? Here's my take!This series will follow Sora who runs into Vanitas in Shibuya, and his friends' journey to find him. The whole family comes together to bring Sora back home, once and for all! But it also smells like teen spirit. How are these kids sixteen and not meme filled potty-mouths? I'm fixing that right now.Disclaimer: I pretty much ship everything, & I'm all about everyone being happy! I'm going to put them through the ringer, but they'll all come out the other side strong! My main Kingdom Hearts ship is Sorikai so that's going to be the main one. Let the destiny trio HUG.





	1. Chapter 1

Torn asunder by the magic used to bring Kairi back from the brink of the final world, Sora beamed at her for what was probably the last time in a very, very long time. Would he be like Aqua? Wandering for a decade before his friends found him? Would he age now that he wasn’t fused with Ventus— now that he’s not a True Keyblade wielder? His heart beat like a drum in his chest.

Kairi was crying softly. He kept smiling because he knew the second he stopped, he’d cry too. Except. He supposed he cried anyway, when he couldn’t see her anymore. Couldn’t see the light of home, or even the vast ocean. He dissolved into darkness and began to float. The darkness tried to talk to him, as it always had done, but he had too much strength of heart to fall for its tricks again. He was still smiling, still wiggling his fingers, remembering Kairi’s fingers under them. The memory of her guided him out of the darkness... or it created the light. Either way, Sora followed it. Trusting Kairi, trusting his friends.

Riku and Axel went to the shack at once. Roxas and Ven tried to follow but Isa held out a hand and the rest of the gang hesitated. The two boys burst out onto the wooden bridge and followed it to the little oasis with the Paopu tree, where Kairi was still sitting, now cradling her hand.

“Kairi,” Riku said. He got to her first and stood in front of her. She slid off of the tree trunk and folded into his chest. He put a hand on the back of her head, looking at Axel while she cried.

Axel--Lea-- wasn’t so sentimental. Not with Kairi anyway, it felt too weird after he’d... you know, kidnapped her that one time. “Sora’s just..,” he asked. He had a strange connection with Sora, just as he had with Roxas. He supposed that all started with his friendship with Ventus. The whole thing gave him a headache when he thought about it too hard, so he tried not to. What he did know was that he was fond of the little creep.

She turned her head so that she could look Axel in the eye. “He’s gone. Again.”

“We’ll get him back. We won’t give up, Kairi.”

“I know we won’t, but... but isn’t this getting old? We find each other, we lose each other, we find each other again? Aren’t you tired?”  
Riku hesitated. “We won’t give up,” he repeated, softer.

“He went off on his own, to take my place outside of the void. But I’ve seen his heart, he’s been to the void. It’s going to push him out. He could be anywhere and at any point in time.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Axel said, but Riku only nodded solemnly. “You followed that?”

At this point, the door at the other side of the bridge had been pushed open. At the head of the charge was Aqua followed by Namine, Roxas and Ven were behind them. “I couldn’t hold them any longer,” Isa drawled.

“Kairi!” Namine threw her arms around her. Kairi, ruddy faced, tried to pull it together, but it was clear to the others she was upset.

Aqua put her hand on Kairi’s shoulder. “Sora?”

Kairi shook her head.

Riku looked out into the distance, beyond Lea, observing the scene somewhat sorrowfully. Xion and Isa were approaching them now He heard her say, "So that's Kairi? But where's Sora?"

“We’ll find you, Sora. So hang on.”

___________________

Sora had been to the city before. He’s even reasonably certain he’s been to this city before. He doesn’t need to blend in. But he does need to eat. Turns out being ejected from the final world left your stomach empty and your bladder full. He was crossing the street when it started to rain. There was a hot dog truck across the street with an awning. Perfect spot to warm up and grab a bite.

“I’m looking for a clown! Has anyone seen a clown? Spiky hair? Crazy clothes?” His own voice said from around the alleyway. He looked over and saw, a black haired someone strutting towards him. In the light of the street lamp he looked slightly non-corporeal. But his visage was unmistakable.

“Vanitas!” Sora jumped into fighting position, his hand at the ready to receive his keyblade. Only, it didn’t show up. He started to sweat. “If anyone’s a clown here, it’s you!”

“Oh-ho, good one,” he said lazily.

“Who are you talking to?” The person inside the cart said. She was staring at Sora like he was crazy, and then looked right at the place where Vanitas was standing and back, like he wasn’t even there.

“He’s—“ Sora began, straightening up. “He’s right there, isn’t he?”

“Look at you, using your head and your eyes at the same time. They do grow up so fast.” Vanitas retorted in an oily fashion. “Grab your dog and walk with me, wouldja? Pick your jaw up off the floor. Remember what I said? I’m always right behind you. I’m your shadow, Sora. The darkness your light casts.”

“Buzz off. I don’t need you all up in my space.”

"Listen, skid mark, you won’t survive here without me. So just get your food and fuckin’ walk with me, okay?” He began to walk north. Sora could run literally anywhere else to lose him. Once he got far enough away, he could run up the building immediately to their left and disappear into the skyline.

“That’ll be six munny.”

Sora patted down his pockets. He hadn’t run into any heartless yet, had nothing on him but the clothes on his back. “I haven’t got—“  
“I’ll cover his. Give us another.” It was Vanitas again, right beside him. Sora jumped in alarm. Vanitas slid the money onto the counter.  
“Okay, okay!” The vender said, indecently panicked by the request.

“What part of leave me alone don’t you get, Vanitas?"

“You talk like that to your own brother?”

“Put up or shut up, Vanitas. I’ve killed you once and I’ll do it again."

Vanitas laughed and took the extra hot dog from the pick up station. “_Ouch_. Maybe you’re worth knowing after all, prissy prince.” He started to walk away again. “But there’s no one here but us. No Riku or Kairi to rescue you, no Donald or Goofy to back up your horrible ideas. No, not even any Ven or me inside your heart to keep you warm. You’re more alone than you’ve ever been. ”  
“And what, you’re here to help me?”

“I’m here _for_ you. There’s a difference.”

Sora scoffed and hurried off after him. Behind him, the hot dog vender hurriedly closed her shutters.

  
___________________

“I’m going to check Traverse Town.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s where he went the first time our lives got torn apart and I can’t stand sitting still. I feel like my skin is on fire.”

“I’ll have to talk to Axel about that,” Riku tried to laugh but it was forced and died when Kairi gave him a withering look.

“I’m serious Riku, what if this is where my journey begins? I’ll go wherever I need to go to find him.”

“So will I, but Mickey and I are working on a plan and—“

“I’m not asking you to come with me,” she snapped. Riku looked away from her for a second.

“Of course I’m coming with you.”

“Riku, he tore himself apart for me. I was a harbor for his heart. Who knows his heart better than me?

“_Me_,” They both turned to see Roxas standing there in the doorway. At least, they thought it was Roxas.

“Roxas?” Kairi asked, to be sure. “That’s fair.”

He stepped closer, forcing Riku into the room. “You’re going to look for him, right? I’m going, too.”

“I didn’t ask either of you to come and protect me,” Kairi insisted, “and anyway, this is all just talk. I don’t have a ship, or a suit, or a raft.”

“I think I can get us a ship, Riku said, but we’re going to have to get Chip and Dale on board.

“You wanna take Sora’s ship?”

Riku shrugged. “Well, he’s not using it. Trouble with that is, the second we leave—”

“—Everyone on the island will know.”

“So? Would that be the worst thing to clue everyone in before we left?”

“They’d try and stop us.”

“Like we tried to stop Sora, before he went after you,” Roxas pointed out. “We trusted him to bring you back. We trusted his heart. We should tell our friends.”

Kairi zipped her bag shut and threw the strap over her shoulder. “Well you do that and try to catch us in the hanger when you’re done.”

“You’ll wait for me, right?”

“Depends on how long you take.” She started down the hall and around the treehouse spiral. Riku led her to the docks. They kicked off and began to row. Two figures appear on the dock as they grow further away.

“You sure about this?"

“This was your idea,” Kairi reminded him.

He laughed and put his shoulders into a fresh row. “Stealing the boat, yea. Not up and leaving right this second. You’re always surprising me, Kairi.”

She put a hand out and touched his shoulder. The action surprised him so he stopped and looked at her to see that she had a determined look on her face. “Riku. You know, we’re not kids anymore.”

She didn’t say anything else. Riku blinked and looked away, his hand behind his head. “Well yea, obviously, Kairi.”

“No, I mean. We’ve always been together. The three of us. Do you think that means something?”

Riku opened his mouth, then closed it. He folded his arms and looked up into the endless sky. “Sora would have given you a good answer to that,” he said finally.

“I shared a paopu with Sora,” she admitted.

Riku’s head snapped back at attention to look at her. “You did?”

She nodded and undid the drawstring on her backpack. “I brought two more. One for you and I, and one for you and Sora.” Riku’s look of shock turned to something gentler that didn’t look at home on his hard features. Kairi giggled, blushing now too. “Wanna do it right now? Before we go on this adventure?”

“You want to share one with me?” Riku asked, still a little late on the uptake. And then, “Right now?”

Kairi nodded again and held out the massive fruit to him. Together, they broke it in half. The skin caught the light in such a way that it almost glowed in the happy sunshine. Juice dripped onto their hands as they scrambled to take a bite. Kairi laughed and Riku snorted, spraying his half of the boat with juice.

“We were always connected,” Kairi said, “Now it’s official.” Then, without warning, she flung herself at him. The boat nearly capsized as they both went clattering to the bottom. Riku hit his head quite hard, but Kairi’s laughter in his ear more than made up for it. She kissed him like she wished she’d kissed Sora before he winked out of being. Riku kissed her back like he’d wanted to since he was fourteen.

He was still dazed when he rode up to the launch pad. It was a great big Mickey symbol on a block in the middle of the water. Kairi had never been so it was up to Riku to show her how everything worked. He stuck his leg out of the boat and kneeled onto the launch pad, so that the small dingy would remain steady. “After you,” he said and grabbed her hands, helping her on.

“The King sure likes the look of his own silhouette,” Kairi said.

“You have no idea. Ever been to Port Royal?”

The box hissed and a small oval near the center opened and dropped. Water poured inside and Riku padded toward it, Kairi close behind.

“Whoa,” Kairi gasped. Riku held out his hand, she took it, and together they jumped down the tube, which gradually turned into a slide. Kairi whooped with glee and Riku looked-- well, as cool as one could look under the circumstances.

Riku landed cat-like at the end of the slide, and then caught Kairi. She whooped with glee but he put a hand over her mouth. He motioned for silence, set her down, and then beckoned her to the hangar.  
“Did you hear that, Chip?”

There was a very loud explosion and a loud clunk. “What?”

“I said: Did you hear that, Chip?!”

“Hear what?!” Dale said, sneering behind the sounds of a buzz saw.

“What in the worlds,” Kairi breathed, but Riku took her hand and led her passed their open garage door. Passed that was a sort of warehouse. There weren’t any windows anywhere but here. The island waters were clear. Fish swam by in schools. Kairi stopped to admire them, and Riku stopped to admire her before setting to work. In the middle of the hangar were three gummi ships lined up in a row. All of them were similar. Riku pulled a blueprint sheet from its holster on the wall and unrolled it. He was struck with the title. Highwind. Riku touched the word and smiled faintly. Sora remembered that stupid bet they’d made. He whopped Sora’s ass in that race and named their raft Highwind. Of course, that was before any of them knew what was in store. The very beginning. Even now, Sora thought of him. “Riku?”

He looked up and pointed to the level four. “That one. Let’s go.”

Once they were in the ship, Riku started to tuck in. “Where’s Roxas?”

“Here,” a voice said behind them. Riku and Kairi both jumped.

“How the hell did you get in?” Riku asked.

“I just pointed my keyblade at it. A lot of my problems seem to get solved that way.”

“Well can you point your keyblade at that? We need to get out of here.” Kairi said, gesturing to the ceiling. Roxas, ever as nonchalant as he was when they’d first met, used his keyblade to open the ceiling gate. Water trickled into the sides and the platform began to rise. Alarms started to blare, but by the time Chip and Dale were in the hangar with them, they were already in the air.

“See? Works every time.” They took off toward the perfect sky and turned into a speck from earth’s atmosphere, soaring through the galaxy.  
“Who was that, Chip?”

Chip looked at his brother and shrugged. “Better tell the gang, doncha think?”

“But really how did you get onto this ship,”

“I... I teleported to the hangar.” Riku looked back at him, his brow fixed with disapproval, “-- But hear me out! Ordinarily I wouldn’t use the powers of darkness unless I had to. I went through one of Isa’s dark corridors and I swear I.. thought I heard him. In the darkness. So I tried again and I was right, I think I hear him when im inbetwixt, or whatever.”

“Who? Sora? You hear Sora in the darkness?”

“Betwixt, that sounds like some Xemnas-ass shit.”

Roxas nearly smiled. “Yea, well.”

Kairi got up to stand in front of Roxas now. “What’s he saying?” She asked.

“What? Who?”

“Sora! When you heard him in the darkness, what did he say?”

Roxas hesitated and then looked away. “He’s not saying anything. He’s crying.”

Kairi slumped against the back of her chair. “How do you know it’s him, then? If it’s just crying?”

Roxas looked at her at last. “It’s the ‘Please don’t hurt me, I beg of you’ kind of crying. I heard him.”

“That’s not Sora. He’s strong, too strong for that and too strong to be held captive somewhere.”

“Well, it’s a lead and unless you have any better ideas--”

“--Better than just teleporting all over the place, listening to what’s probably maybe-not Sora?”

“What if it is him and he’s in pain somewhere?”

“What exactly did you hear him say?!”

“Boys, Riku, incoming!”

Riku blasted some heartless out of an asteroid belt then grunted. “Why did we bring him again?”

Roxas looked unbothered by Riku’s rudeness. Riku pressed him anyway. "What if it's not Sora? what if it’s some kind of trick? Or, since it was darkness, what if Vanitas was involved? He has Sora’s voice.

“Who cares? That’s the same thing right?” Kairi and Riku were silent. “Actually, who’s Vanitas?”

  
___________________

Sora found the strength to summon at least some magic, just in time to block an explosive overhead strike. Vanitas bore his teeth at him, sharp and gleaming with wicked promise. His dark costume plumed behind him as he did a backflip onto the sidewalk. “What the hell!” Sora barked.

“Force of habit,” he returned mischievously, and then started to run. Sora, dumbstruck, followed after him only to be met with a hailstorm of fire from the other end of the walkway. Vanitas blasted the spell his way, charcoal and flaming embers rocketting off the walls and ground. Sora ducked behind a dumpster and slid down it.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to get me to follow you if you, you know, stopped attacking me?” There was a break in the attack. Sora vaulted up the dumpster and flung himself at a nearby fire escape. Vanitas threw his keyblade like a boomerang just missing the top of Sora’s head, a few strands of his hair clipped from the sharp edge.

“Testing a theory,” Van said, and rushed him as he landed back in the alleyway. Sora yelled and held up his hands in self defense. Still, no keyblade. Vanitas’ was right up against his chest, right against Sora’s heart. The sharp tip pushed into his shirt, creating a hole there. Van nudged the blade forward and Sora winced, staggering backwards. He put a hand to his chest and it came away with a dot of blood, right in the center of his palm. “What’re you done already?”

“I’m not going to fight you,” Sora said, but he was bluffing. He would if he could, hell he kind of wanted to, now. But for some reason, no matter how he tried, he couldn’t manifest his keyblade. The expression on Vanitas’ face led him to believe that the other boy already knew.

“You can’t fight me,” Vanitas amended. Sora took another step back. “What’s with that look on your face? Scared I’m going to mince you? Well you should be.”

“Well get it over with, then,” he said, holding his arms out. Things couldn’t get worse than this. Vanitas was right, he was alone and lost, with no keyblade, none of his friends, not a cent to his name. He wasn’t in the business of giving up, but he certainly wouldn’t give this guy the satisfaction of running away.

Vanitas seemed to have short circuited at the suggestion. He lowered his keyblade slightly and regained some of his smirk. “Is this a trick? It’s not fun if you don’t squirm.”

“Well you better kill me quick, because I’m not in the mood to squirm,” Sora shot back. Vanitas’ smile slid off entirely, his sharp teeth disappearing beneath pursed, snarling lips.

For a moment, Sora thinks he’ll strike. Clean and true, one single swish just like the one Xehanort used to make Kairi shatter into particles of light. The thought haunts him, but then, maybe he’d be scattered elsewhere if he dies here. Though, the longer the two boys stood here facing each other, the less Sora believed he was really willing to put his munny were his mouth was. He lowered his arms. “Lost your nerve?”

Taunting him, it turned out, was the wrong avenue to take. Vanitas, simply out of spite to prove Sora wrong, raised his blade again and smacked him across the face. Sora tumbled backward, dazed, but he also knew that Vanitas could have killed him. Recognized the flat of his keyblade as it came whipping towards him. “You don’t know me, Sora,” he spat viciously, “you don’t know anything about me.”

“I know you like to pick on people. I know you’re a bully, Vanitas, but for what?” Words were really all he had. He couldn’t rely on his feeble magic, but he might be able to lean on his heart and his intuition. “I know you tried to hurt my friends. I know you were Xehanort’s lackey all this time! Now that he’s gone, what are you even doing?” Sora held his head and got to his feet at last, making a sweeping gesture in Vanitas’ direction as he stalked closer. Sora kept shouting. “I’m sick of being scared. I’m never feeling defeated again. My friends will find me, wherever I go, and—“

Vanitas lanced Void Gear toward Sora’s face, stopping short at his nose. Darkness swirled around his weapon, more solid than he was. “Shut your mouth, you don’t know what you’re talking about. What I am is—“

“A coward,” Sora interrupted. He grabbed the head of Vanitas’ keyblade and pressed it to his chest. “The mirage of a coward. Go on, do it. Bet you can’t.” A smile was spreading across his face and Vanitas looked aghast. Sora had a theory as to why he was here. Here specifically, out of all the places in the big, wide multiverse. “In fact. I know you can’t.”

Vanitas’ lip curled.

“You need me or you’ll disappear, is that right? You need a harbor like Ventus did.”

The other boy said nothing.

“Well, I’m not as easy as I look. You’ll at least need to ask nicely, and promise you’ll never try to kill me again.”

“Get real,” Vanitas barked angrily, “eat shit.”

Sora wrapped his jacket tight across his chest for effect. “Then this dock is closed to the public. Sorry, man. Now. If you’re not going to kill me, and you’re not going to bury your crap and apologize, I’d appreciate it if you’d get out of my way.” Sora shoved passed him. He felt solid enough, except he had no shadow. His keyblade did though, and a thought suddenly occurred to him.

As he passed, he touched the handle. Vanitas withdrew his hand as if he’d been shocked, but Sora followed his motion sideways. In the ensuing scuffle, Sora got a hold of the keyblade. Aeozaga, he thought desperately, and the spell kicked up at proper width. He was touching Void Gear, feeling its power as it surged through him. So his powers did still work.

Vanitas elbowed him in the face and scrambled to his knees before Sora could rejoice in this information. “What the fuck are you doing? Have you lost your mind!?”

Sora didn’t answer, just nursed his busted lip, looking ruefully at Vanitas like a pet that had just been smacked with a rolled up newspaper. It was worth the welt to know he still had the power, that he hadn’t lost everything.

Everything tangled up in his heart and the lore of the legendary weapons lead him to believe that.. he was never an original wielder. Yen Sid had told him as much, hadn’t he? Terra bequeathed his power onto Riku and Aqua onto Kairi. Sora had simply obtained the heart of someone who could, and thus, every copy of him made thereafter could, too. Ventus was the reason he, Roxas, and Xion even had keyblades. With both him and Vanitas thoroughly out of Sora’s heart, he feared his powers were gone forever.

Vanitas threw down his keyblade. At first, Sora thought he had done it for him and reached for it, but it dissolved into smoke beneath his hand. Sora’s hand clenched around the air and he wondered if he really could take Vanitas with his meager magicks. It would be worth it to try to give him a shiner or a matching lip cut. “Get up,” he said unkindly.

Sora didn’t stirr.

“You deaf? I said get up.” Vanitas hauled him to his feet and grabbed fistfulls of his shirt. “I _will_ find a way to untether us. You better believe that when I do, I _will_ come out on top. A worthless punk like you?” he scoffed, “When I’m done, I’ll tear you to ribbons.” Vanitas let him go and strutted backward into new lamplight. Still, Sora was spellbound and immobilized by his dark aura. Vanitas looked ghostly and opaque, completely unlike he had in the Keyblade Graveyard. There, he was menacing. Solid. Horrifying. Now, he seemed little more than a feeble threat.

“Yes, yes, scary,” Sora said, and he had to admit, feeble threat or not he _was_ a little scared, though not enough for his common sense to kick in. “Can you let go of me now?” Vanitas released him, and in the same breath, he was gone. Vanished. No sight of him on the street or anywhere behind him. Sora scratched his head and spun around once in search. Alone. Again.

At first he was relieved. He wandered to his fallen hot dog and kicked it over ruefully. Sora was a decent cook and there must be ingredients littering the city he could scavenge. His stomach turned and he set off, vaguely wishing Vanitas had stayed. He was antagonising him, sure, but at least he was someone to talk to. At least he was a remnant of home— of Ventus and all of the friends he’d left behind.

Sora walked on until he ran out of steam. He was still hungry and growing more and more frustrated with each passing moment, although he really couldn’t pinpoint why. He’d been in worse jams than this. His friends would come and they’d get him out of here. Help him find his powers again and take him home. He was sure of it.

The light inside thoughts like those were enough to chase the deepest shadows away. And though he’d been relegated to eating food he found near the train station sleeping on a park bench, he felt warm. He touched his chest and imagined them searching for him. The thought lulled him to sleep.

  
He dreamt of a friend he hadn’t seen in ages: Peter Pan. He was looking frantic, searching his hollow high and low with the rest of the lost boys. “Fall in!” Peter shouted, and all the boys bumbled to the center of the playhouse in a line, from tallest to shortest. “Report?"

“No sign.”

“No sign, sir.”

“I haven’t seen a wink,” the twins said, almost in unison.

“Nope, Peter!”

“Shit,” Peter said, his hand balled into a fist under his chin. “Well boys, it looks like we have no choice. We have to expand the search.”

“Good idea,” Slightly said. Sora wandered behind him, listening in.

Who’s missing? He wondered, looking around the hollow. All the boys seemed to be there. It took a moment for him to realize that he didn’t hear any musical bells. He looked this way and that, but couldn’t see Tinkerbell anywhere. The boys all tore up the various escape hatches and chutes that lead out of the tree house, and Sora found himself outside with them. Peter folded his arms and started to levitate. The look on his face made it clear that he was troubled.

“You’ll find her, Pete,” Sora said sympathetically. Peter looked at him. Through him. The turn of his head gave Sora a start, but he didn’t appear to see him. Sora held his hand out. “You’ll find her,” he said again.

“You two, go North, Slightly, zigzag south until you hit Mermaid Lagoon. Kid, you’re with me,” he huddled Toodles, who laughed with glee. This dream felt so real.

Sora was ripped from his reverie and the Lost Boys’ attention shifted as a shooting star dropped from the sky. It disappeared above the treeline. There was a beat of silence, and a loud BOOM that reverberated throughout the island.

Sora jerked awake. At the same time, worlds apart, two boys named Sora and Peter both exclaimed, “What the fuck was that?!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riku sucks at driving, Roxas won't shut up, and Kairi wants to go apeshit.  
Oh, also I guess Vanitas has a lot of unresolved Ventus issues, enjoy.

In the cockpit of Sora’s Gummi Ship, Riku and Roxas still argued. Riku couldn’t put his finger on _ why _ he was so annoyed by him. He was stoic and sarcastic, and a little mean now that he got to actually time with him. A little over a year ago they were hurling themselves off of tall buildings and trying their level best to destroy each other. Roxas had wanted to live, and Riku knew that the only way to wake Sora up was to beat his other half into submission. That's all he was to him back then; ‘Sora’s other half’. Apparently, Roxas held a grudge. Riku was unbothered.

“Okay, so I didn’t get the Vanitas memo, geez, my fuckin’ bad.” Roxas held up his hands defensively. On top of his growing resentment toward Riku, whom on some level_ felt_ like one of his closest friends, Roxas had been dead for a while— longer than he’d been alive, arguably. Or well, _ dead _ was perhaps too strong a term. He was erased from existence, fused with Sora. Unable to move without him, to breathe without him. Couldn’t feel the sun on his face without him. He’d been melded with him for so long, and it felt like home after the hell he’d gone through to uncover his own identity. Every authority he ever answered to to had lied to him, used him, tricked him, imprisoned him. Sora was different. He was safety in a storm, certainty in the face of the unknown, and a good heart in the sea of darkness, and cliche as it sounded, Roxas hated being... without him. Hated _ being _ without him. 

From what Riku and Kairi had told him, this Vanitas cat was bad news. If it was him he’d heard in the fog of the dark corridor, following it would mean he’d be walking into a trap. Still, his eagerness for action trumped his common sense. If Vanitas was out there, maybe he could take them to Sora. It was better than nothing, which was what Kairi seemed to be working off of.

“Remind me again why we’re going to Traverse town?” Roxas said looking vaguely bored as Riku had a full on meltdown in the driver’s seat. The Gummi was rocking, first with heartless, and now through a treacherous asteroid belt. Riku hit a piece of floating space rock and static flashed across the engine. “Watch it!”

“That helps, thanks!” Riku said, clearly annoyed.

“Traverse Town is where he went when our worlds disintegrated the first time. I want to start at the beginning, and look everywhere.”

“Why can’t we just go to the heavy hitters? The Final Rest, or the Realm of Darkness, or the End of the World, and work our way out from there?”

“We’ll do it my way for now,” Kairi told him in a tone that suggested the matter wasn’t up for debate. “If that’s a bust, we’ll try your plan.” She had all of Jiminy's journals and had been reading deeply from each one. More than being incredibly insightful, she found a greater admiration for Sora within the pages, if that were even possible. And she felt very strongly about Traverse Town. Another wave of heartless bombarded the ship. “Riku?” She asked, sounding frightened.

“I’m working on it,” he said, straining. “This ship is _ not _ optimized.” 

“Blame the ship,” Roxas mumbled. The next jolt came, and the ship went spinning off course entirely, beneath the asteroid belt. “Merlin! Fuck!” Roxas yelled, pull up, we’re heading straight for that-- that-- _ thing _!” Alarms were going off above them, but they were all glued to their seats as the Gummi spiralled through space down, down, down, and...

They broke the atmosphere of a strange green planet that looked decidedly not like Traverse Town, and started to fall.

“Brace yourselves!” Riku cried, hands still tight about the steering wheel. 

Kairi clapped her hands over her face and Roxas braced his arms on his chair rests. “Landing gear, landing gear!” He shouted, but Riku was immobile.

They crashed, bounced, then crashed again, spinning into a crater amidst a lush forest with thick grass. They were perhaps near a swamp, or right on top of it as the area, apart from smelling like a fried Gummi engine, reeked of soiled water.

The boys shakily clambered out of the hatch and into the sun.

“I wouldn’t have crashed if you weren’t yelling in my fuckin’ ear, dude.”

“I wouldn’t be yelling in your ear if you knew how to fucking drive!” He shouted back, incensed.

“You drive next time, if you think it’s so easy! That ship is a piece of work, and I was facing an army out there with, like, one gun so— wait. Where’s Kairi?”

The two of them looked back into the cockpit but she was gone. Roxas hopped off the wing and onto solid ground, bending to kiss it, really just to rub it in Riku’s face. He got to his feet and looked around. “Where are we?”

“Kairi!” Riku had his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice. “God damn it, _ Kairi!! _”

An impossibly fast beam of light flitted in front of him. He swatted it and kept calling out. Roxas, since Riku hadn’t answered his question, joined him.

The stream of light passed them again, and again Riku swatted it away. Roxas tried to follow it with his eyes, wondering what kind of place had bugs like that. The longer he stared, the more sure he saw the shape of a girl in that ball of light, and not any kind of bug. “Wait, stop.”

Riku was about to argue out of hand, but at the look on Roxas’ face, he obliged. He followed his gaze to the streaking beam of light, ricocheting like a pinball off the trunks of trees until it landed in a nearby bush and did not come out again. The boys looked at each other, and then at the bush before approaching in unison. They peeled the branches apart to find a miniscule Kairi in a pink dress made of flower petals. She was wearing slippers and short gloves and had a plant stem tied about her waist. She also had wings.

The two boys looked thunderstruck. “Kairi?” They said together. 

“What the _ hell _?!” She tried to stand, but whizzed into the air again. 

“So this is happening,” Roxas said casually as Riku danced around in the clearing, trying to catch her. He did, softly cradling the girl in the palm of his hand. 

“I don’t understand,” he began. But a distant battle cry interrupted his line of thought. 

“_AAAAAAA EEE-OO EEE-OO EEE-OO!!_” Several voices vocalized beyond the trees.

“The locals?” Roxas said, still managing to look as if he were playing a board game and not... in a strange place surrounded by foliage after one of his friends got turned into a pixie.

“Let’s get outta here,” Riku suggested, grabbing Kairi as she streaked passed him. He turned to hurry away before Roxas answered.

“Should we be leaving the ship? Hey. _ Hey _ ! Where _ are _ we,” he asked again and this time he was determined to get an answer.

“I have no idea—“ He stopped. They’d broken through the edge of the forest and poured onto the fine white sandy beach. There was the ocean, and a rainbow, and plenty of rock formations to mark their location. There was a black ship with gold trimmings and an enormous gaudy sail trundling along in the distant waters. Riku’s eyes went wide at the side of it. He looked at the ship, and then Kairi, still in the palm of his hand and said, “Actually. I think we’re in Neverland.”

The other two were quiet for a minute before the screams cut the trees again, getting closer. “Should we go back to the ship? Try to fix it and get out of here since we, like, did not mean to land here?” Roxas probed one last time.

“I’m hearing you, dude, I heard you the last fifteen times you said that. You wanna go to the ship so bad then go! I’m trying to figure out why this happened.”

“Becauuuuse, you crashed on the wrong planet? Seems simple to me.”

Riku whipped around to face him, “Why Kairi turned into a fucking fairy, dipshit! She’s been here before and that didn’t happen the last time. Something must be wrong.”

“I’ve been here before?” Kairi twinkled from the palm of his hand, looking confused from one boy to the other. “Neverland? I-- I don’t remember.”

“You wouldn’t, you were in a coma at the time.”

“What? When?”

The yells had subsided by now. Roxas looked fretfully over his shoulder to where Riku had “parked” the ship. Those voices had probably converged on it now, so backtracking would mean a fight or a long conversation. Roxas wasn’t in the mood for either. He looked forward again passed Riku and Kairi, at the mouth of the bay and the ship in the distance. It began to glow a faint golden color. “Uh, guys?”

“A few years ago when I was er- _ collaborating _ with Maleficent and Hook. I took you to his ship and--”

“Guys.” Roxas said, a little louder now. Riku raised his voice to compensate.

“--well, it all worked out in the end, thanks to Sora. But the point is, you weren’t a pixie. Something must be--”

“Guys!” Roxas yelled, and for the umpteenth time Riku turned his severe features to him. Roxas only need point.

The ship in the distance groaned and creaked with its own weight, lifting itself out of the water. It was covered stem to stern in that strange shimmering gold. It looked like sand, like clumps of sugar, like some sort of magical dust. But Roxas and Kairi were unfamiliar. By the time all three of them were watching, the ship has started to turn in slow motion. Then, slowly, it came toward them. For a wild minute they thought it would crash into the bay, but instead it got closer and closer and sailed right above them. Roxas could see it just barely crest the top of the trees as it drifted inward, into the mainland.

“That’s not good,” Riku said into the silence.

By now the three of them had quite forgotten about the voices up the beach, and so they were startled when they kicked up again, louder than ever. “What the WHAT!” the panicked voice of a prepubescent boy said.

“That must be-- no, it can’t!” screamed another.

Riku went a little pale. “And I think I know who that is, too. I’m betting they won’t be huge fans of mine.”

“Why?”

“I sorta-kinda... kidnapped... their leader’s girlfriend,” he admitted, only embarrassed because Kairi was there to hear. “And that ship? I think I fucked over its Captain, too.”

"Maybe we should have left you on Destiny Islands," Roxas said, narrowing his eyes.

She surprised him by saying, “Maybe we’re here for a reason. Maybe we have to find out what’s going on.” She sounded like him-- like Sora. How many worlds did he accidentally crash land on, only to stick his nose in the business of the natives and try to relieve them of some of their problems? Even when the fate of the world hung in the balance, he found time for each and every one of his friends. But they all, unfortunately, didn’t share his vast circle, nor have his infectious charm.

“We’ll have to be careful.”

“Aren’t you tired of being careful?” Kairi asked, “Don’t you just wanna go apeshit?” Now she sounded less like him.

“I’ve been there, apeshit doesn’t look good on me,” Riku told her. 

“I haven’t!” Roxas added, shoving him aside, “That was very Axel of you and I’m _ in _. What’s the plan, Kairi?”

“We have to figure out what’s happening. Maybe whatever lifted that ship can lift ours!”

Riku had a theory, but he kept that to himself. “Is lurking around really wise? It’s fight on sight no matter who spots me.”

“So we won’t get spotted. Come on, this can’t be the end of our journey, it’s just an obstacle. For Sora. Come on you two, for Sora!” She put her tiny little hand out. A beat later the two realized that was their cue to bring it in. Each obliged her with a finger. 

“For Sora!”

“You folks know Sora?” A voice around them asked. So much for not getting spotted. A red haired boy stood in the clearing, flanked by two boys, one with a boomerang and the other a slingshot, both poised to strike. The red-head held his hand up to still them. “That sure is strange. I just had a dream about him. Or... or a feeling. Say, do we know each other from somewhere?”

Riku was horrified at being snuck up on, but relieved Peter didn’t seem to remember him. Very eloquently he stammered, “Uhh.”

“Is that Tink?!” Peter went on and leapt forward. Reflexively Riku moved backward, but he caught a peak anyway. His face fell when he saw the pink glow instead of a neon yellow one. He looked from the pixie in Riku’s palm, to Roxas, to Riku and narrowed his eyes. “Who are you guys? How did you catch a pixie? What are you doing on my island? You know what? Doesn’t matter.” He focused solely on Kairi now, at an angle with his hands on his knees so he could meet her eye. “Do you know Tink? Can you help me, I think my best friend is in trouble.”

Her heart ached for him because she knew exactly how that felt, but the Gummi ship had to remain a priority. “I don’t know your friend,” she said, “but how can we help?”

“I have to get back to Hangman’s Tree before Hook does. He’ll shoot me out of the air if I try to fly right up to his ship, but he wouldn’t see you. Maybe you could find her.”

At the mention of flight, Kairi turned a pale greenish color. “Her, uh-- wing is broken. She can’t.” Riku said, coming in for the rescue.

“Drat!” Peter cried, “well you’re no good then! I’ll get her back myself.”

“But you’re following the ship, right? I mean so are we. We need some of that gold stuff for our ship.”

Peter looked suspicious and then eyed Kairi again. “What’s the point of a pixie who can’t fly or make pixie dust?” He asked, turning to head back to the clearing. The two boys followed. When they reached the Gummi ship, three more boys in similar onesie pajamas slunk off of the ship to fall into step behind their leader. “And do I know you from somewhere?”

This time it was Kairi’s turn to rescue him. “I’ll do it! I’ll fly to the ship once my wing feels better. So please take us with you.”

“Fine,” Peter said, not even bothering to look behind him, “but you guys better keep up. I’m not backtracking for a bunch or strangers. Even_ if _ you know Sora.”

“This kid’s kind of a prick,” Roxas said in an undertone to the other two, “and that ship is a long way up. You sure you can do it, Kairi?”

“Positive!” she said, although the high pitched jingle that she emitted told him that she may be lying. “How hard can flying be?”

  
  
  


___________________

Vanitas had what vaguely resembled a plan if one stood far enough back to see the “Big Picture”. He needed to get Sora into a position where he had no choice but to offer him refuge. Sora would need Vanitas to summon a keyblade, and Vanitas needed Sora to manifest properly. He was still a shadow of Ventus. And of Sora, almost. Maybe even that other blonde kid had a heart he could latch onto and steal from. Once he pieced himself together from within one of their hearts, he would be whole and free to roam as he’d always been. For now, he was stuck to Sora like glue. He be seen by anyone but him and couldn’t stray too far from him or he’d be reeled back in like a fish on a line. He focused hard on staying the level of semi-real he’d cultivated since he and Sora arrived in Shibuya, but the moment he stopped he found himself literally his shadow, yellow-eyed and slithering on the ground beside him, watching. Waiting. It drove him fucking bananas.

Sora, on the other hand, was quite enjoying his vacation from being the defender of the universe. He knew his friends would find him eventually, he just had to make sure he was in one piece when they did. Such a thing didn’t seem terribly hard. He encountered no heartless or any other kind of hostile enemies, just ordinary people traveling through their day. He could do tricks off of barrels for munny and maybe the odd poster job now and then, but that was never enough for a roof over his head. He settled for food on the table and went to hide in the library before it closed so that he had someplace indoors to sleep.

When they were alone together, Vanitas practiced meditating and tried hating Sora with every fathom of his meager existence. Hate him enough to manifest his darling Unversed. The effort was so far fruitless. He didn’t understand. Even when he was at his weakest he still hated Ventus enough to pluck at least a sliver of that malice out and solidify it into a creature form. Sora was just such a... loser.

It was like hating a cat on catnip, which is to say he was more inclined to laugh at him more often than he was to hate his guts. He was different from Ventus because he had both light and darkness rolled into him. He was just enough of a bastard to almost be worth knowing. _ That, _ a voice in Vanitas’ mind whispered to him-- a voice that sounded eerily like Master Xehanort-- _ is just the kind of sentiment that leads to distraction _. There was no light and dark, he had said, only power. And those too weak or cowardly to wield it.

Vanitas took a page from the old man’s book and whispered to Sora when they were finally alone. “It’s kind of creepy in this place at night,” he reminded him, watching sweat bloom on his face. “And still no keyblade, huh? How long do you think those heartless will leave you alone?” It occurred to him that they hadn’t attacked because he was no longer a defender of light. With no keyblade to act as a beacon for the light, darkness didn’t follow him. Well... not_ that _kind of darkness anyway.

Sora hopped on the ledge of the fifth floor and flung himself off of it, landing on the third subconsciously trying to distance himself from his fears and get lower to the ground. Vanitas didn’t even need to jump. He simply found himself beside Sora on the third floor landing. _ Where is this idiot going? _ Van thought and followed him towards the far windows.

The boy had seen a streak of light outside the building and was trying to get a good vantage to quietly investigate. Vanitas only noticed when he got to the window that there was a boy outside, standing before the fountain with what looked like a sword resting leisurely in his hand. “Riku,” Sora whispered. All the air seemed to press out of his lungs. He shouted this time, and banged on the glass pressing his face flush against the window, “Riku!” 

The boy outside turned. At once the two of them realized that this kid was in fact not Riku, but just someone who bore a startling resemblance. He had two different colored eyes and a coldness in his frown that Riku no longer championed. Sora withdrew slightly, still maintaining eye contact with the stranger. But the boy simply scoffed and began to walk away. Sora leaned on a bookshelf and then sunk to a disgruntled sit. “Riku...,” he said again. His eyes started to well up. Then, he began to cry.

Vanitas liked tears, but only when _ he _ was the cause of them. When he was the one inflicting pain, those tears were delicious reminders that he owned someone’s suffering. When people cried... unprompted.... it was weak and unnatural. Ventus cried all the time. When Vanitas was still a part of him, he remembered Ventus (... the two of them?) staying up curled in bed, wailing quietly into his pillows. Merlin forbid Master Xehanort knew Ventus (they) even entertained the _ notion _ of crying. It was weakness that Vanitas wasn’t a part of. He hated Ventus for that. Hated him for a lot of things.

It was easy to dredge up those intense feelings of hate for your goody-goody twin brother and his ‘harbor’ or whatever Sora had called himself— when you were staring such weakness in the face. _ Okay... Now we’re cooking with grease. _

Vanitas’ dark aura swelled and a pool of darkness gathered in the ceiling above Sora’s head. _ Just a little bit more _. Vanitas thought of being whole again and finding Ventus— of driving Void Gear into his wretched heart once and for all. Ending him for leaving his own brother to fend for himself with a mad metaphysicist who almost destroyed the universe and had gotten Vanitas discorporated.

“Choke on this,” he said in a voice that reverberated off of every wall and shelf. Sora scrambled to his feet. Too late he saw the thickening pod of manifesting enemies and ran.

He pelted down the row of books at top speed and dashed toward the foyer again. The Unversed were on his heels. Sora furiously batted away the tears in his eyes and leapt onto the banister of a nearby stairwell. He surfed it down, the small gaggle of unversed hurling themselves off of the railing in order to get to him. Sora ran backward into a bookshelf and toppled it. Vanitas laughed and then pulled himself out of Sora’s shadow to hold him steady against the fallen shelf. Sora couldn’t move his arms, couldn’t break free of this imaginary grip. 

The strange creatures converged on him, all sharp angles and menacing metallic greys. One of them, a bulbous frog like creature with whips attached to the corners of its horrible mouth, dragged itself closer. Sora kicked and screamed, but it was no use. He braced himself for the impact of its sharp talons raking across his face, squeezed his eyes shut in anticipation of a blow that... never came?

He opened his eyes and the boy from outside was standing there between them, his sword sticking up through the Unversed’s neck and out the top of its pulsating head.

The boy twisted in mid air. The first and the biggest of the Unversed evaporated and the boy charged forward in a blur of black and red. 

Sora leaned his head back in relief, then continued to struggle against the bonds that subdued him. Sora was too distracted, Vanitas couldn’t hold him when he was filled with hope or light or even something as simple as temporary relief. He started to sit up. Vanitas dug his claws into Sora’s chest; he yelped but broke free, stumbling off of the bookcase and onto his knees. And here, he was crying again with his hands balled into fists, staring down at his shadow.

And his shadow _ stared back _. Two yellow slits peeled open in his shadow where his eyes were supposed to be. He yelped and scrambled upright. He missed the end of the boy’s show— he had made quick work of the Unversed and as soon as Sora had gotten to his feet he had the stranger’s blood red sword-knife-thing pointed readily at his throat. Sora’s hands shot up in the air. “I didn’t—“

“You’re making trouble in my town,” the boy accused. “_ Weird _ trouble. We don’t need any weird trouble here. We get enough from the mechs.”

“I didn’t—“ Sora said again, “Wait, I wasn’t— listen, I was trying to get away from those guys. I’m unarmed!”

“What are you doing in the library?”

Sora looked down, his hands lowering a little. “I don’t have any other place to stay. I’m not supposed to be here.”

“You got that right. Who are you? You have five seconds.”

“I’m Sora! I- I’m just lost. So totally, unbelievably lost. Like, you wouldn’t believe me if I tried to explain, lost.”

The boy lowered his blade and pursed his lips into a very thin, suspicious line. “Yozora,” he said.

“No, uh. _ Sora _,” Sora repeated, tapping his chest for emphasis.

“I’m introducing myself. _ I’m _ Yozora.”

“Oh. Nice to meet you, Yozora.”

Vanitas was starting to feel faint again. Hate seemed to sustain him and his abilities in this feuge state he was in, but he was drained of it now. Ventus wasn’t on his mind anymore and he was more or less content watching this strange introduction unfold. As Sora’s shadow he felt ghostly pangs of his impressions. Sora felt related to this other kid somehow, felt inclined to thank and befriend him since he was the spitting image of a boy he loved back home.

Caution, hope, and gratitude swirled within the both of them when Sora went on, “Wait. Yozora ,like, from the game?”

“That’s me. In the flesh.”

“You _ know _ you’re in a game?”

“Sure. In here’s no different from out there.”

Sora looked around as if a door would appear somewhere around them. “Out there?”

Yozora raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow. “You’re in a place called the Toy Box, man. And you’re clearly not from here. I’m going to need you to get lost before you do any more damage to the code of this place.”

_ Sora? _ A new voice was added to the din inside Sora’s head. He clapped his hands over his ears and grimace. You’d think he’d be used to such intrusion by now— He’d been host to at least five hearts at one point, and yet hearing a voice that wasn’t his own echo inside his head still made the hair at the back of his neck stand up. _ Oh goodness, Sora? Bless the blue fairy, I think I’ve found him _.

“Hello, did you hear what I just said?” Yozora didn’t care about his inner turmoil.

“Fucking hell,” Vanitas added unhelpfully. Sora groaned.

“Excuse me?”

“I didn’t say anything,” Sora said through gritted teeth.

Yozora was frowning now. “Yes, you did....whatever, listen kid, you can act as weird as you want, once you’ve moved on. You’re headed to Galaxy Toys.” Another familiar name. Sora had no qualms with being pushed back to the familiar, so he nodded, still holding his head. “You alright?”

“I will be once, uh, this weird headache goes away,” he replied, offering no explanation. Yozora didn’t seem interested in probing him for one.

They left the library together, Sora still rubbing his head. _ Sora can you hear me? Sora, you’re utterly alone. Sora, I’ll find you. _

Yozora stopped before a large and complicated intersection. There were tall buildings with screens emblazoned on their faces, large crosswalks criss crossing each other, and cars making their way to and fro. What was weird about the square though, was that the biggest of the displays were blank. “You’ll need to jump through that. It’ll take you somewhere else.”

“It’s... it’s as easy as that? I wish I knew I was stuck in a game sooner. This isn’t my first time, you know.” 

Yozora, characteristically, did not ask any follow up questions. He folded his arms expectantly and bobbed his head in a way that said, “well?”

“Thanks for saving me. Thanks for helping me out back there.”

“It’s my job,” Yozora said rigidly. Sora extended his hand. Yozora took it and gave it a curt shake. Then his mouth twitched like he was about to smile.

“Lemme ask you something. Do you know a guy named Riku?”

“No.”

“Well. I feel like you guys would leave an impression on each other.” Sora let his hand go and then sprinted towards the black screen.

He slipped through the screen like it was made of water. It felt cool, like he were lying on linoleum floor. The bite of cold stung his cheeks. There was darkness everywhere— so thick and pervasive he couldn’t see his hands waving directly in front of his eyes.

Two voices prickled the edges of his consciousness, softly at first but growing louder as both tried to be heard over the other. “Sora... _ Sora.... Sora! _”

Turns out Van didn't need hatred to seep into Sora's heart; he just needed an opening. He'd possessed Sora briefly before but he was really nothing more than a demented shadow. He'd told that hot dog vendor to go screw their mother and had managed to squeeze out "fucking hell," for Yozora back there, but that was nothing compared to this. Vanitas barrelled out of nowhere unseen in the pervasive darkness. Sora could tell it was him by the feeling of his sharp claws, his low, bragging chuckle. The other voice— the female voice— gasped as though she had felt it.

Vanitas tore at Sora’s chest and he screamed. He felt Vanitas push himself through the gouges in his spirit he had created, felt intense pain and then nothing at all. He was looking up at his own body from the ground, no longer in any pain and no longer swimming, lost in darkness.

Above him, his body flickered and solidified. His hair flashed jet black for a split second. His head turned and he was greeted with his own eyes scowling down at him, yellow instead of blue for a fleeting instant. “Finders keepers,” he said mischievously, and flashed a wild grin. He held up his hand experimentally. Void Gear appeared in his grasp. He let out a long, low whistle. “It’s good to be the king.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drammaaaaaa, please comment! Feedback helps me a lot, I'm planning on turning this baby into a comic.  
The lovely @tomurai gave me the idea to slip in a dash of Verum Rex/Yozora in this chapter. Thank you so much!


	3. Not Quite According to Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kairi saves the day and Vanitas has to confront his EMOTIONS. 😷🏳️

“So how are you expecting to pull this off? Not to be rude but you don’t seem...” Kairi shot Roxas a look, “Like a super good flyer?”

Kairi didn’t need to be reminded. She sat in the palm of Riku’s hand trying her best to flap her wings without rocketting off again. Riku had to gently hold her ankle between his thumb and index fingers as a precaution because during their trek back to this ‘Hangman’s Tree’, Kairi had almost gone spinning out of control a handful of times.

“Here for a reason,” Riku said absently, echoing Kairi from earlier.

Kairi harrumphed beneath him. “I’m starting to think that was a bunch of baloney.”

“I’m starting to think you were right,” Riku countered. Kairi wrinkled her nose, but he went on, “Listen, Tinkerbell is missing and you got turned into a pixie. We got _ pulled _ into this planet’s orbit, I felt it when I was driving.”

“Or you suck at driving,” Roxas countered, but Riku was ignoring him.

“It might not have anything to do with finding Sora, but he’d want us to help his friends.” She had to try but in her heart of hearts, she had no idea how to start. Peter and the lost boys marched ahead of them through the trees. Roxas was at the head of the team with Peter. Kairi sat in Riku’s hand and started to meditate. She’d never meditated before but she figured closing her eyes and breathing was a good start. She was asleep in under five minutes.

You see, pixies are often said to be so small that they could only hold one emotion at a time. Famously, Tinkerbell has attempted to murder Peter Pan’s feamale friends out of pure fits of rage and jealousy. Pixies are uncomplicated creatures of impulse. 

She dreamed of Sora, of that moment between the two of them on that hot beach tree. They started to glisten, then gleam far too brightly, keeping pace with the increasing heat. So long as Kairi didn’t blink, he wouldn’t go away. If she kept her eyes on him, he wouldn’t fade. Her eyelids twitched and she began to cry.

“Kairi,” Riku said in what he probably thought was a hushed tone. 

She jerked awake and saw him staring at her... hovering a foot above his hand. She screamed and kicked in the air, but she didn’t fall. In this feuge and panicked state, she was still thinking about Sora. Slowly she was pulled back into reality. Riku caught her when she began to waiver, holding his palms in front of his face. 

“Are you okay?”

Kairi didn’t answer him. What if the key to flying was love? She thought of Sora, studied the look of worry on Riku’s face and fell in tune with her heart beating in her chest. Riku’s concern changed into something else and he looked away. But she was floating again. She flew as if she were swimming, pushing the air around her like waves. She pushed aside his bangs and landed on his head. “I think I cracked this flying thing,” she said at last.

Riku went cross-eyed trying to see her on the top of his head. Kairi realized they were in a clearing with a large, ugly, dead tree in the center. It was an ordinary landmark, really. Peter instructed the Lost Boys to take what they can carry while they kept watch. Peter, Roxas, Riku, and Kairi were to stand guard against a giant flying pirate’s ship that could be anywhere. 

“Is it weird to say I’ve missed this?” Roxas said, stretching.

Kairi summoned her keyblade. It worked, and it was as small as she was. “Oh-hoo! This’ll come in handy!”

Tootles was the first back outside carrying a crate of baby toys. He picked up a large horn and blew it. It was enough to shake the clearing and startle the teenagers around it’s perimeter.

Peter flapped his arms and put a finger harshly over his lips. Tootles winced as birds continued to shake free from the surrounding treetops. “Maybe they didn’t hear it?” Nibs said, emerging from a spot on the tree, scratching his butt.

There was a soft whooshing sound, and then the sound got louder. Kairi stood up and the boys summoned their keyblades. The wind started to whip around them and the groans of a ship were added to the din, as were a choir of grown male voices grunting from above. “Take coveeeer!” Peter yelled, and the lost boys scattered. Riku went too, but Kairi and Roxas stayed put.

“I could jump that,” Roxas said to himself, running up Hangman’s tree and balancing on the uppermost branch. Kairi focused on the treeline and everything seemed to go slow. Eventually, still. She saw the ship rear up in slow motion. A beam of light appeared on the bow and she swore she could reach out and grab it. The next thing she knew, there she was, a little speck of light fluttering on the bow of the flying ship. Filled to bursting with pirates.

Roxas, who didn’t know how to airstep but _ did _ know how to jump inhumanly high, timed it just right and launched himself at the ship. He did a backflip onto the deck and crowed.

Peter down below, ripped his dagger from his belt and looked Riku up and down. “I swear I know you from somewhere,” he said, taking a break to rub his chin. Thankfully, Riku didn’t even have time to react. Peter held out his hand and continued. “Wait, we’ve got bigger fish to fry. I gotta guard our home!”

Riku put a barrier around them both with a wave of his hand. “I can help,” he said. Peter nodded at him. 

“Perfect. Can I trust you down here?”

Was he planning on leaving? Riku nodded anyway and lowered the shield. As soon as he did, Peter Pan took off toward the ship. Riku held his ground against the looming monstrosity.

High above, Kairi, Roxas, and Peter advanced on the pirates. Peter and Roxas fought them in melee, ending up back to back. Kairi whizzed around, making the pirates fire their flares on each other. “Find Tinkerbell!” Peter cried. 

Roxas knocked two orbs of light into the crowd like baseballs and in the unfolding confusion Kairi escaped into the Captain’s quarters. With a pang she recognized this place. She was asleep on a very uncomfortable couch. Riku and Hook were arguing. But not the Riku she’d come here with— this one was young...and angry. There was a loud explosion. The apparition of Riku drew the curtain to see a boy in a red jumpsuit fighting a flying clock-beast. “Wendy isn’t a princess of heart. I’m wasting my time here,” Riku said, though when he turned there were fresh tears in his eyes. Perhaps at the sight of Sora. Perhaps at the guilt that was slowly eating him alive. 

The Captain’s quarter’s swam back into view. Hook was there. The _ real _ Hook. Kairi fell to the ground at once and stopped jingling, praying she hadn’t yet been seen. “Blast that Peter Pan! Smee!” The captain said, but whomever he was talking to didn’t materialize. “Release the cannons!” He shouted to the open door. The order got echoed by the men right outside, and then by more men littering the deck. Eventually the crew got to the business of readying the cannons. “And don’t you even think about stopping, missy! If the ship goes down here, Hangman’s tree will be destroyed. Your precious Peter Pan will be dead!” He was shrieking at a lantern clutched in his hook. The lantern glowed with soft yellow light and Kairi knew at once why she had appeared small in this world. She flitted out of the cabin as an idea struck her like a bolt of lightning. Roxas skidded to a halt in the doorway, keyblade drawn. Captain Hook took one look at him and said, “...Do I know you?”

Roxas lunged. “You know what? I wouldn’t be surprised.” He said, and the two burst into fighting.

Kairi came back, flying jaggedly from nerves and exhaustion. She tried to keep thinking of Riku and Sora, but neither of them were here now. It was just her and two boys she didn’t know, and a bunch of pirates who would squish her like a bug if given the chance. When she began to feel heavy she realized that perhaps love wasn’t the key to flying after all. She thought of her best friends, still, and yet she could barely lift the hempen rope clutched tightly in her arms.

She gathered her remaining strength and pulled the rope taught as Hook stumbled backward. His heel caught it and he stumbled ass over tea kettle over a nearby trunk. Despite her desperation, she had to laugh. Her laughter launched her ten feet in the air— in a seven foot cabin. She ricocheted off the ceiling and landed on the couch, bouncing back into the air. The harder she laughed the easier she sailed through the air. It was then she realized the secret to flying wasn’t love— but laughter. The secret to freedom wasn’t dependance, it was joy. She picked up the rope at one end and chimed to Roxas to come help her. The two of them tied the Captain’s feet together and laughed themselves to tears. He tried to stand, but in his blunder a chunky key fell from his coat pocket. 

“You won’t get away with this!”

Down below, Riku had defended Hangman's tree from two falling cannon balls. Two _ exploding _ falling cannon balls, he’d like to add. The surrounding forest was on fire and there were craters everywhere, but all things considered he thought he was doing an okay job. His barriers were weakening and magic had never been his strong suit. He wished Mickey were here— or Aqua. Either or them could summon a shattering shield that could end this fight once and for all.

“Roxas! Throw her and jump!”

“What?”

“Throw that lanturn and _ jump _!” Kairi repeated, hefting the key and flying out the window. “Trust me! Jump off the ship!” She flew passed Peter on the deck, “Fly, Peter!” He didn’t need telling twice. As soon as he started to float, he noticed that the ship was sinking. Sailing through the air in a downward trajectory.

Kairi flew to the wheel and kicked a crewman in the eye. He stumbled against the heavy wheel and the bow careened to the left towards a thick unoccupied canopy of trees. She looked back in time to see Roxas chuck the lantern into the air. She followed it. She’d lost Hook’s key but materialized her own. A beam of light later, the door clicked open and a streak of light darted out. The lantern burst open on the forest floor. Tinkerbell hovered above the ground, finally free and aware of the descending ship. Between the weird flashback and all the activity on the ship, the fact that Roxas couldn’t fly may have slipped her mind. There was a loud crash that shook the earth but didn’t affect the pixies hiding in the trees. Kairi and Tinkerbell flew forward. Together they tore through the forest for the source of the noise. 

“Whoa, Deja Vu,” Kairi said. They appeared at the scene of a ship crash. A shout cut the trees from around the corner. Kairi recognized that voice. “Riku!”

They hurried forward but stopped almost at once. Riku was indeed up ahead, holding a cannon ball _ in _ a shield. He appeared to have _ caught _ it. He grunted and nothing happened. He started to scream and twist in his stance. The heavy cannon ball spiralled in the air, arching over the trees and coming down with a loud crash on the ship. Wood chips and pirates came flying out of it like it were a pinata. 

“You scurvy little brat!” The Captain breyed from within the ship. “I’ll get you, Peter Pan!”

Peter flew into the air and crowed. Riku wiped sweat from his brow and straightened up. “Not like I helped or anything,” he mumbled.

“Riku!” Kairi jingled, flying up to him. He turned in time to see that little speck of light before she started lighting up his hair. For one glorious second he found the space to smile. But then he remembered where he was and who he was with. 

Peter Pan zoomed passed them both. “Tink!” He said, colliding with his pixie in mid air. They flew in sync with each other as only two creatures that had been best friends for centuries could. “Aw, Tink I was so worried!”

Slightly and Nibs were there with Riku, guarding the forest. The younger Lost Boys filed in from trees along the path. “You found her?” Tootles said, picking his nose.

“Hot diggity dog!” Said Nibs, clapping his hands.

“Maybe that’s what we were here for,” Kairi said. She was still standing in the crook of his neck, jingling brightly by his ear. 

“To show us... we’re not the only ones going through this bullshit cycle of loss? And that everything is temporary?”

“I would have said it better than that, but yeah, pretty much.”

Hook’s silhouette appeared on the deck of the ship, holding his sword to the back of a boy with blonde hair. “You brats destroyed my ship!”

“Oh _ fuck _ me,” Kairi breathed. Roxas didn’t jump. Good thing he hadn’t because she was entirely preoccupied with saving Tinkerbell. Riku’s eyes widened a little in surprise but otherwise he did nothing.

“To be fair you used your ship to crash our place,” Peter shouted back. “Sora ain’t scared of you!”

“Roxas, actually, but don’t feel bad. I see the resemblance and I get that all the time,” Roxas called down casually. His hands were tied behind his back, but his tone of voice made Kairi a degree less worried. That was until Hook pushed him to the end of a, miraculously still intact plank sticking out from the side railing. The boy turned to the Captain, and then cautiously looked down. “I can survive this,” he said confidently.

“Aar.. but can you survive _ this! _” The Captain lunged at point blank range, lancing his sword right at Roxas’ heart. He yelled and stumbled backward reflexively. He struggled within his bonds but before he even tipped from a trip to a fall, a dark corridor swallowed him whole.

It appeared in a plume of syruppy smoke and then was gone. A second later Roxas somersaulted out among the rest of them. He smiled through tight lips. “I’m going to be incredibly passive aggressive the whole rest of this trip, someone please cut this rope.”

Pan did. “Neat trick,” he said earnestly. 

Roxas rubbed his wrists showily, “Glad someone thinks so.” He disappeared again and materialized back on the plank. He summoned his keyblade and knocked Hook off of it with embarrassing ease. He landed in a heap on the ground, alive but missing a number of his teeth. Peter Pan laughed as his crew carried him away. 

“See ya, Codfish! You’ve got no ship! Should be a piece of cake to punk ‘em in the future.” Said Peter.

“Like taking candy from a baby!” Said Slightly.

“Hey!” Said Tootles.

“Do you guys have some kind of problem with me?” Roxas was saying on their way back to the gummi ship.

Riku and Kairi were walking ahead, whispering to each other and completely oblivious to the chaos generated by the Lost Boys. Riku turned his head and Kairi looked back over her shoulder. The two of them always saw him like they’d only just realized he was there. 

“What?” Kairi said, “No. It’s just...” She trailed off, hoping Riku might pick it up for her.

“I actually do have a problem with you,” Riku said. Roxas bristled, but Riku held up his hand to explain. “You remind me a lot of Sora. You were the other piece of him for a really long time. I argue with you on purpose because if we were friends I guess I’d feel like I was replacing Sora. I just don’t want to get distracted.” He said. He and Roxas were stopped now, at the edge of the path where the others were still moving forward.

“Thanks for being honest with me,” Roxas said finally, a muscle in his jaw twitching. It was an effort to be that grown-up about it. He was a Gemini after all.

Kairi looked aghast at this revelation. “We’re friends, Roxas,” she said, although in her heart she found some truth to what Riku had said. She lamented that her very first adventure was with Riku and _ Roxas _ instead of with Riku and Sora. “We just have to get to know each other.” She truly believed that.

Roxas looked from one to the other and nodded. “I heard him again. In the dark corridor,” he told them now that the others had moved on. “You guys should hear it too. It’s not dangerous,” he added to the look on Riku’s face. He knew better. He was a Master now, he couldn’t allow himself to be tempted by the darkness. He had a responsibility to Kairi and his friends— which moving forward would apparently include Roxas.

“I don’t think so,” he started to say but Kairi flew from his shoulder and in front of Roxas.

“Do it,” she said, and Roxas nodded obediently. Behind them oozed open another dark corridor. 

“I’ll open it up at the ship,” he told them, as that’s where they were headed anyway. He stepped inside. Kairi flew in after him. Before Riku had even decided whether or not to follow them, something incredible happened: as soon as Kairi stepped in, the dark matter dissolved. Instead it was a cascade of gentle gold light, like Tinkerbell’s fairy dust. It formed the shape of a door and felt warm. It warmed the whole clearing. Experimentally, Riku put his hand through it. It felt like passing under the lazy waterfall next to the secret place in Destiny Islands. Riku summoned his keyblade and went inside.

Kairi and Roxas were just as stunned to find the inside of the dark corridor bright and shimmering. Ordinarily the space between was a stream of disorienting colors. It looked vaguely like a garden, only too bright to really see. And there was definitely a voice— Sora’s voice— echoing clear as day around the open space. The voice wasn’t crying or begging though. It said:

“My friends are my power. My heart, my guiding key. My friends are my power. My heart, my guiding key.” Over and over again like a record on repeat, the same inflections. His voice, but robotic... or panicked.

“This way,” Roxas called and another glowing doorway materialized a few isles up. The three of them stepped out and they were back in Neverland, back in the clearing that they crashed in with Peter and the Lost Boys.

“Slowpokes, there you are! Let’s get this show on the road shall we?” Peter called. Tinkerbell had agreed to help get their Gummi ship back in flying condition. It was time to go.

“You drove this shit? I mean ship?” Slightly said, snickering.

The three of them were still stunned by the experience.

“You heard him, right?” Roxas asked.

“Yeah.”

“Yep.”

“And you saw when my portal thing turned all bright or whatever?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Yep.”

“What _ was _ that?”

“I have no idea,” Kairi chimed, looking at her hands. Tinkerbell flew over to her and spirited her away from Riku. The two boys stood next to each other at a healthy distance.

Roxas was trying hard not to be offended by Riku’s confession and Riku was thinking pretty much entirely about Sora, where he might be, and what danger he was surely facing. He was the most optimistic guy he knew, but that well could run dry at any minute.

Pixie dust, it turns out, is a pretty good cure all for mechanical difficulties. If you’re familiar with the mending cantrip in dungeons and dragons, imagine it works sort of like that. Pixies, mischievous and immature, are known to rip holes in things and steal your keys just before long vacations, but they are also quite good at making up for the destruction they often cause. Tinkerbell wasn’t involved in this particular bout of engine failure, but her powers left her well equipped to handle it. She held Kairi’s hand and together they played tag around the shell. At first Kairi wondered how this could possibly help, but the more she lost herself in the game the faster they went. They were two dots whizzing around the Gummi’s exterior, giggling and trailing streaks of dust along behind them. The ship began to levitate and Tinkerbell tackled Kairi off of it, back to the clearing where they circled each other some more. 

Riku grinned. “Excellent.”

“I’m driving,” Roxas told him.

“As if.” But Roxas was already gone. He tried to open a dark corridor to find the strange deluge of golden light at the end of his fingertips again. He walked through it and came out in the cockpit. Kairi flew up there with him and Riku started to backtrack for a running jump.

“Hey. Riku. I _ do _ know you!” Peter Pan said at last. And that was when Riku lunged for the ship. He double jumped and landed on the glass, which Roxas opened for him, already in the driver’s seat. The ship flew full speed into the sky, and then winked out into space. Kairi grew to her original size in her seat, Riku was thrown backward into one of the passenger seats, and up they went.

Kairi and Riku looked at each other, and then laughed hard, too hard to leave space for breathing. As adventures went, that one was pretty cool. It had pirates! And she was flying for most of it. Riku looked shaken up but only because she did. If he was on this quest with Mickey he wouldn’t have to worry so much about his company. One day she’d show him that he didn’t need to worry about her either.

“Namine knows where he is,” Roxas said.

Riku and Kairi stopped laughing almost immediately and faced the front seat. “What?” Riku said, suddenly stern.

Roxas held out his Gummiphone and showed them a thread from Namine.

**Nami:** you guys left to find Sora right ??

**Nami:** we have a lead. meet @ traverse town, if you want! Xo cya

“She knows were Sora is.” He repeated, “She wants us to meet her in Traverse Town.”

-o-

Vanitas lifted his arms in triumph, flexing his fingers and arching his back. He threw his chest open and laughed maniacally. The walls did not tremble, nor did the floor or ceiling. The ceiling in fact was leagues away. He searched his surroundings to find that he either must be small, or everything around him was giant. He walked to the end of what he’d ascertained was a shelf. He looked behind him and into the wide, plain flat screen he had materialized out of. Then he examined his joints. “Am I... a toy?”

“Things could be worse,” Sora’s voice said beneath him. Vanitas looked down, disgust plainly etched in every line of his brow. “You could have gotten bodystatched.”

“The body I snatched is a _ toy’s _ body,” Vanitas spat back viciously. The tables had turned, he wasn’t able to peel Sora away entirely, but he had his body, and he had access to a keyblade. It was a matter of time before he found a way to shed his shadow.

“I think it’s brilliant. What incarnation of me is the least threatening— the least likely to take over the world?” Sora gestured. Vanitas walked toward a spotlight on the shelf and Sora felt himself elongate. He stretched along the shelf and moved his limbs experimentally, free from Vanitas at least in that regard. 

“As if,” Vanitas said, which Sora was beginning to recognize as ‘the thing Vanitas said when he didn’t have a comeback’.

Sora found himself thinking about things he tried not to get lost in. He thought about the things he didn’t have, which now included a body. He didn’t have friends, a key, a way of calling for help. He had nothing and he was stuck watching this boy take his body for a spin. Perhaps he could get it back in a moment of unguarded weakness, but what then? They’d play this game forever, stealing each other, trying to kill each other. Sora wondered if Vanitas was worth redeeming if all he wanted was to cause hurt. He started to think he should make his goal to free himself from Vanitas once and for all. 

The shadow Sora cast was greater the closer to the spotlight Vanitas walked. Sora slithered along the wall beside him, his claws poised to strike— only when he did, he just went straight through him. “You think it would be so easy? Please.”

Sora remembered the feeling of being watched the whole time he was in Shibuya and groaned. This was what that meant. And no matter how menacing he thought his shadow looked, at another glance it was harmless. It was just his shadow. Vanitas was just a dark alter ego... and now so was he.

“I can help you,” Sora said, but even to him his voice sounded strained and distant, like he was shouting over an impassable void. The sentiment drowned in that feeling of nothingness, of hopelessness and emptiness. It was easy for Vanitas to ignore. “I can help you if you just give me my body back. I can get us back—“

“There is no ‘back’ for me,” Vanitas seethed quietly. Did Sora seriously think those losers at Destiny Island would accept him back? That puppet of Riku had had the right idea. He’d chosen to fade and leave his body for Namine because one Riku was already enough. What would they say to two Soras? What would Ventus say if he ever saw him again? “You think I’m going back with you? Get real, ballsack.”

Vanitas lept on stage with the frog choir and threw Void Gear at a switch on the far wall. The lights went on and the band started to play. Sora screamed and hissed, bubbling around Vanitas who had his arms out like he was a conductor. “What is this!” Sora gasped, unable to breathe and curled at Vanitas’s feet. Light was all around them and the shadow Van cast was tight and small, cooking under the spotlight.

“This is me shutting you up!”

The pain in Sora’s head only worsened. It reached a fever pitch and everything turned black. Sora was grasped by sleep, and he was grateful. The splitting in his head subsided slightly and he was falling. Or floating. Both felt alarmingly similar.

He succumbed to the falling or floating, didn’t even try to open his eyes. He couldn’t hear Vanitas anymore or feel the heat of the lamps. Couldn’t hear the frog choir or smell the sticky sweet smells of popcorn and cotton candy coming from the game floor. His necklace jingled softly in front of him, a soft bell in the darkness. A small pink dot danced across his vision. “My friends are my power. My heart, my guiding key.” He said to the pink dot. It crossed in front of him and disappeared. “My friends are my power, my heart my guiding key. My friends are my power, my heart my guiding key.” His mouth wasn’t moving but his voice reverberated with those words, hovering around him like a cloud or an afterthought. 

“Would you give it a rest?” A voice from high, high above him said.

Sora opened his eyes and was greeted by darkness above. He looked below him and saw a disk, floating up to meet him. The disk was yards wide and would catch him. In fact it seemed to want him to land there. The disk had effigies of his friends on it, all of them in orbs surrounding a larger effigy of himself. He recognized this place as the Dive to the Heart. He never really understood it before— those times he was here deciding what kind of person he’d like to be, confronting Roxas, or feeling lost, defeated, run down, or out of options, he’d end up here. _ Inside _ his own heart.

Ordinarily something would happen the moment he started walking. He wandered ... and nothing.

Not for the first time, Sora wondered why he never saw Ventus in here. If his heart was Ventus’ sanctuary for so long, then why didn’t he ever see him sleeping in his heart? Not once? That time he was a child hardly counted— that was his very first dive into his own heart and he hardly remembered the experience at all. Everything special about him came from someone else, he thought. But by now, wasn’t he pretty special on his own? His willpower was nothing to scoff at. He’d come back from deeper, darker pits than this.

“Optimism?” A voice said. The platform cracked loudly, a large rip erupted right through the center, cutting Sora’s painted face in half. The station tipped sideways and Sora scrambled to hold on. “You’re pathetic. Your superpower is _ empathy _?”

The station shifted again, but this time to the other side. Sora dug his fingers in the groove of the latest crack in the glass. His fingers bled as he tried to hold on.

“The great hero has a passive power— not even enough juice to survive lil’ old me,” the voice taunted, and Void Gear came spinning down from the jet black sky. It landed in the center of the painted plateau and shattered it into a thousand pieces. Sora fell into the great abyss, gasping and yelling.

There was no ball of pink light to cut the darkness this time, only the disappearing shards of his friends faces. The last of them dissolved and he continued to fall... or float. Time evaded him. The hope was stolen right out from under him. He began to feel weak and his form flickered, as though he would fade too. For a long while, he felt through with being strong. If it would take every drop of his strength to remain corporeal, what would happen if he just gave up? Would he fade away in his own mind like Terra did when Xehanort possessed him all those years? Would he cease to exist? Would Riku and Kairi ever be able to find him? 

Tears lifted from his eyes as he fell and he slid them shut again. Just before he let go, he began to cry. He was sorry he wasn’t able to hold out for his friends, sorry they’d have to deal with this mess when they found him. Guilty because he really wasn’t strong enough in the end. He needed his army behind him to spark real change— he needed his friends and the spirits of Keyblade wielders before him. He’d felt true power in that graveyard. He amounted to a feeble speck of darkness floating nowhere. Sadness poured out of him, surrounding him like an aura. He pressed his hands to his eyes but that only made him sob harder.

Vanitas appeared out of thin air, through the space that exists within the heart. His appearance shocked Sora, especially as he was coming right towards him. “Look at what you’ve done!” He roared savagely. He barreled toward him, claws poised. They grappled in mid air and landed with a hard thud on another plateau. This one was wreathed in darkness and sharp angles. Vanitas was painted on the side, but a huge chunk of it was carved out. Sora staggered to his knees. He didn’t have time to work out the symbolism before Vanitas had charged at him again. Even in Sora’s heart Van had control of Void Gear and he didn’t. He brought it down between Sora’s feet, cleaving through the glass beneath them.

“You... _ you! _” He spat angrily. He looked wild with it as he picked up his keyblade and kept coming for Sora.

“You’ve won! What do you mean?” Sora yelled, scuttling backward. There were still tears in his startled blue eyes and he was so far defenseless. What plan of Vanitas’ did he possibly foil?

“Braig’s got us. Fuckin’ got _ me _,” he said, advancing. “You were in here thinking about your damn friends and how much you miss them, and you— you—“

“What are you talking about?!” Sora said, his hands up. It wasn’t a fair fight, and if Vanitas didn’t slow down and start making sense soon, surely he’d start wailing on him.

“Braig. Xigbar. He sensed me in the ether and thought I was Xehanort. I could have fought him if you could have just kept your fucking trap shut!”

Sora looked around, then up at where the sky should have been. He couldn’t see anything but darkness, not even his own station. Just Vanitas’ crumbled one. "You mean to tell me," Sora began, "you had control of my body for less than five minutes and got knocked out?"

“I was less than a foot tall, give me a fucking break,” Vanitas screamed. “What the fuck world is The Toy Box, even?”

“It’s not so bad once you’ve tried jumping into one of the robots.”

“What?” Vanitas bore his sharp teeth, looking very much like an animated cat with attitude.

“I’ll show you when we bust out of here.” This changed the game. Vanitas was stuck here too. The two of them together were prisoners of this place. They _ needed _ this heart, this body to survive. Ludicrously, Sora went on, “Let me put a hand on your keyblade. I’ll pour my power into it and wake us up.”

Vanitas narrows his eyes. “Okay... Alright...,” he started to chuckle and wave his empty hands in the air. “_ Sure _. I’ll just do that for you, buddy!” He turned with a demented smile on his face that slipped into downright rage. “How stupid do you think I am?” Vanitas punched him right in his jaw. Sora stumbled and backed away as he advanced.

“Vanitas—“

“You know what, I don’t consider that an insult,” he said, materializing his blade and slashing it in a forward arc. One quick, fluid movement, casual as his tone. Sora flew backward, coughing and dazed. His head hit the floor beside Vanitas’ upside down mosaic. “I figured by the way everyone was treating you that you’re kind of the dumb one.”

Vanitas struck again, but this time Sora dodged it. He was back on his feet, wiping the blood from his neck with his gloves. “I _ am _ a half-pint,” he smirked.

“Keep your mouth shut,” Vanitas snarled, “this speech doesn’t require audience participation.” He threw his blade down and it materialized a dozen more places. “As I was saying.”

Sora lunged for the different incarnations of Void Gear. In all of his experience with duplicating weapons, one had to be the real one. He dodged the blows of the ones he could, but he wasn’t fast enough to dodge them all. “Its humiliating it’s even taken me this long to ruin you, but alas I suppose we all deal with disappointment. Some more than others, right?” Sora was starting to feel weak and light-headed. A few more knocks on the head and.... would he just go back to floating or could Vanitas destroy him here? 

The fake ones hurt when they struck and disappeared like mirages. The whole world started to spin. “No one thought of little Sora, not Terra or Aqua or even Ventus, that prick. Let you borrow his power for years and doesn’t even pass down his keyblade.”

Sora groaned. What he was saying was ridiculous, but the crushing weight of everything was nearly too much. He caught Void Gear at last, but it bucked and kicked, trying to get out of his hands. Vanitas held his hand up like a puppet master and rose the blade into the air. Sora held steady, trying to get to the handle, to cast a spell, to win the fight! Vanitas leapt at the blade and caught it expertly by the grip. “You still don’t see it, do you?”

Sora froze, panting.

“I’ll _ make you _see!”

Sora reacted. The hailstorm that erupted around them was seismic. Sora cast a shield charm but it was like using an umbrella if it were raining cars. He needed a keyblade. He had to do what was necessary to protect himself. He had to win his body back from this evil creature. And in his desperation he tugged at a truth he had been too afraid to face ever since he watched Master Xehanort pass away.

He had been the last soul to ever touch the X-blade. Where was it now? Could it be summoned? Was it... his?

The meteorological hail broke apart in one sector as the blade emerged in Sora’s hand. He gasped. The X-blade gleamed its wicked promise, a blade forged of pure energy swirling white hot and every color imaginable. It was heavier than Earthbreaker, Sora would bet his big shoes on it. The criss-crossing kingdom keys along the hilt that adorned the sides looked (well, horrible but,) heavy and intimidating. Sora heaved the blade forward and found it shockingly maneuverable.

Vanitas, horrified, flew backward as far as a single backflip could take him. He looked from the X-blade to Sora and back again, aghast. “You—You—“

Sora was just as stupefied. Perhaps somewhere deep down he knew that when Xehanort had given it to him to close Kingdom Hearts, it would be a part of him forever. But the larger, more dominant part of him was utterly stunned. He stared at the blade in wonderment. And then in hunger. His eyes shifted to Vanitas, and then his head followed. “I, I?” He interrupted. “Cat got your tongue? You only like playing with your prey when it’s defenseless?” Sora pointed the X-blade directly at Vanitas’ heart.

Vanitas got Void Gear up just in time to parry an explosive blow. The mosaic rippled beneath them, thousands of little cracks appearing in the thin glass frames of Vanitas’ existence. It was him and Ventus and Xehanort, only the other two were half torn away. Sora could only tell it _ should _ have been Ventus and Xehanort by a feeling that ceased his gut. “It doesn’t have to be this way,” Sora said, confidently now. Negotiating was his only hope when he was unarmed, but in the here and now, either one of them could get destroyed forever. He’d meant it back in the labyrinth when he said Vanitas could come with them.

Vanitas’ eyes went wide. Frightened, Sora thought. Not of the prospect of oblivion, but at the fate of his soul. He was being extracted from Ventus, stretching, screaming, full of newborn rage and confusion, and then sequestered away, never to be looked upon except for study and training. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

He was fighting with Aqua in the radiant garden and then suddenly he was watching from around a corner when the three original heroes held and congratulated each other after battle. “It doesn’t have to be this way, Vanitas. You could come with me.”

He was in the keyblade graveyard, sixteen years ago, watching Xehanort rise into the sky and wondering where inside this new fresh hell, _ he _ would fit in. Only to find that he wouldn’t. He’d moved on to Terra and Ansem the Wise. Ventus was gone and Vanitas existed in a limbo of darkness and hatred. “We could be brothers, you and I.” Sora took hold of Void Gear, but Vanitas wouldn’t let it go. Vanitas’ yellow eyes began to shine, his teeth gritted. “I’ll get us home. I’ll find a way. I’ll—!” Vanitas grabbed hold of the X-blade’s handle.

  
  


They bolted upright. Sora was against a cardboard wall. He twitched violently and nearly tipped his container over. His body was tied up with pipe cleaner twist ties and his joints were made of plastic. 

Vanitas was in front of him. _ In _ the box with him. Also a toy but not tied up. They rocked back and forth once before getting their bearings. “What the hell?” Vanitas said, looking at Sora, and then down at his own hands. “This shouldn’t be possible.”

“Untie me!” Sora hissed, jumping up and down.

Vanitas looked at Sora again and wrinkled his nose, pulling his upper lip back in a snarl. “This shouldn’t be possible,” he repeated, disgusted now.

“Vanitas!” Sora angry-whispered sternly. “We’re made of plastic, and in a box, and Xigbar is somewhere closeby. If I’m remembering my enemies right, this guys got guns and lasers and we’re _ toys _ so fuckin’ _ untie me! _”

Maybe it was Sora’s demanding tone or maybe it was because Vanitas was dazed at now being somehow, miraculously reconstituted, but he did as he was told. “Use the X-blade and get us outta here,” he suggested, but Sora need only kick the flimsy plastic out. They were in the bottom of a brown paper bag. Above them was some sort of pipeway and the steady drip drip of water. Sora kicked through the bag and spilled out onto what looked like a workbench. Beyond the desk the garage floor was littered with Gigas.

“Hey, remember those robots I was telling you about?”

A minute later a gun clicked, announcing Xigbar’s reentry into the room. From around the legs of one of the Gigas, Vanitas and Sora saw Xigbar look around at eye level. He took one look at the bag, signed, and put down his lunch. “I deserve that,” he said to himself. “Come out come out, Vanitas. You couldn’t have left this room so where are you? Just come out the jig is up. My lunch will dry out if you don’t, boy-toy.”

“I call the purple one,” Sora said, dashing passed Vanitas. “The purple ones can fly and shoot lasers.” He hopped into one of the machines and it closed around him. The cockpit sunk and a digital HUD of what was going on flashed in front of him.

Vanitas was split between taking an order from Sora and dealing with more of Xigbar’s taunting. In the end, laser shooting robots won out. He’d never imagined what ‘fun’ might seem like. Apart from torturing Ventus and his friends he didn’t suspect he’d ever experienced fun. Peeling the wayfinder trio apart and melting them like army men was fun. But running while encased within a small mech was _ fun _. He felt a lurch in his stomach, felt his whole body bounce off the ground. “Whoa..” he said uneasily.

“He saw us, dude, get it together!” Sora said from in front of him, mounting both of his hand-lasers. Xigbar had seen them and was pointing his glowing, normal sized gun-spear at them. 

“From the bottom of my heart, I hope this hurts,” the man said sincerely, and then opened fire in the small garage. Blazing purple bolts shot all around the room, but Sora lifted into the air and shot him in the stomach. Vanitas sprinted forward to avoid a few hits. He was too shaken to react immediately like Sora had. It’d been forever since he fought someone for fun and not for Xehanort. First of many, he could assume. He was alive, he had his very own body, and he was hurtling through the air with alongside the Boy who had caused so much trouble.

“I missed you at the graveyard, Xig. I wish I got to kick your ass along with Marly and Larxene’s.” 

The news that his fellows were dead didn’t even phase him. The bullets had made him flinch, but he dispelled the energy around him and tried to focus his aim. It didn’t help that they were both so tiny. The man snarled. “Had more important matters to attend to, he said, his voice oily, “sorry to dissappoint.” 

Sora kept blasting him. Even teleporting, it was difficult to hit such two miniscule moving targets. He opened a dark corridor and blasted Vanitas inside like a baseball. He needn’t do the same to Sora because he went leaping in after him.

He didn’t know where Vanitas was just sent, but he saw what it was like after he was created the first time. Born, and then immediately quarantined, missing Ventus that turned into the bitterest of resentment. The Giga around him dissolved when he flew through. He grew to his original size in several disorienting steps. He found Vanitas there in the betwixt, lying on his backside and looking around with the same expression Rapunzel had had on her first day outside. “Are you okay?”

Vanitas drew his keyblade and shot to his feet. For a wild, desperate, windswept second, Sora expected to feel hurt blossom on his body. A moment passed, then another. The lance hadn’t been meant for Sora, but for the man looming behind him. Xigbar’s weapon tangled with Vanitas’. Sora, thinking fast, twirled around and blasted Xigbar in the chest with the mere summoning of the X-blade. The realm itself began to crumble at its reappearance. “We have to go,” Vanitas said, his voice small. Frightened, Sora thought again. “You have to trust me.” Sora looked back at him and saw his hand outstretched.

He took it without hesitating and together they sprinted through a new dark corridor.

_ Sora? Sora, you’ve got to hold still, _ a soft female voice whispered to them.

  


Sora blinked and looked around. His head rested on something hard and cold. The floor, he assumed. He looked to the sky and then got to his feet. They were on some sort of bridge overlooking a decorative moat. The colors had changed, from cool greys to warm beiges. The dark corridor was still shrinking behind him. Behind _ them _.

Vanitas had... saved him. Right? He hadn’t imagined that? Granted, he was the entire reason they were in danger to begin with-- as was the establishing trend with him. 

The truth was, Vanitas was the pure darkness to Ventus’ pure light for so long, he’d never stopped to entertain neutrality. His ability to create lovely demons filled with honey, cakes, and apple pies— His capacity to be sorrowful upon demise, not for the abyss but for the wasted opportunity. Then regret for allying himself with a man who, ultimately, cared so little for him that he wasn’t even present when he died. Who made him and dictated his whole life as a pawn. Sora was both. Light and darkness in a normal person. The keyblade didn’t even choose him, really. And yet he persisted. For a blinding moment of insanity, Vanitas was inspired.

Sora on the other hand, was just happy to be solid again. He looked up at Van standing above him and rolled to his feet. He gratefully patted down his shoulders and arms and then shot a wide smile at his travel companion. “So? Dipshit?”

“What is it with you?” Vanitas snapped. “You come here, literally_ fall from the sky _ spewing shit about friendship and redemption and shit like that. You wield the blade. You... you made me real. _ You _ were enough to make _ both of us _ real, that shouldn’t be possible,” he gripped the cold steel guardrail in front of him until his knuckles turned white. Until his fingers screamed and began to lose sensation. “Like Ventus never did. Did you mean it before, when you said we could be brothers?”

Sora looked aghast. He hadn’t expected such a confession, but his heart felt bouncier than he’d dare let himself feel since landing alone in Shibuya. Maybe Vanitas, son of darkness, was more like the yang to his yin. “I’m still going to bust you whenever you do something atrocious--”

“--When have I _ ever _\--”

“--But yea I meant it, dude. We could be brothers.” Sora looked off into the distance and finally recognized where they where. Traverse Town. It seemed appropriate since he was marooned here the last time everything royally fell apart.

The two boys stood and observed the fountain in long silence. When time had elapsed and it became clear Xigbar— or Braig or whomever— wasn’t hot on their heels, all the tension seeped out of them like air from balloons. 

Vanitas allowed there to be silence between them. It was, predictably, Sora who broke it. “I’ve got so many brothers,” he said, more to himself than to Vanitas.

“Beg pardon?” He sneered.

“Roxas, like, lived inside of me for a year and a half. I guess he’s only a year and a half old. He’s technically my_ baby _ brother.”

Vanitas barked, “Yea, okay, what does that make me?”

“Merlin, how old are you?”

Vanitas laughed again and collapsed on the cobblestone floor. Sora hadn’t been expecting that either, but he adapted and knelt at his side. “Um. Fuck, how old _ am _ I?” He counted on his fingers. To ten, and then to ten again. “How old are you?”

“Sixteen.”

“No shit?”

“Yea, a few weeks ago.”

“A few weeks?!”

“Let’s get back on track, birdbrain, how old are you?”

“I thought I was twenty-four, but I think I screwed up my math. I was created magically back when Masters Dumb and Dumber, and their hot mom were out skipping through the universe.

“I met Terra, you know. All those years ago. I was, like, four or five or something. I remember he was this fucking _ giant _ in armor just strolling along the beach. But I knew he... wasn’t there for me. Wasn’t going to hurt me. You know?” Sora tilted his head sideways to look at Vanitas. By now they were both on the ground, watching the plain starless sky and the tops of the surrounding buildings. It was the dead of night by the channel. The street lamps were too far to illuminate them properly. They were shadows trading secrets in the dark.

“Did you know Ansem and Xehanort lived together for a couple years? I think about that sometimes, like, Xehanort buying TP for the house or Ansem boring Xehanort to death with his fucking poetry. I must be eleven or twelve,” Vanitas continued with no pause. “If you met him when I think you met him, you’re talking about the year after Xehanort made me.”

Sora was dazed as he spoke, but at that, he sat up on his elbows suddenly alert. “I’m_ your _older brother too?”

“But I’m a _ manifestation _. I was out in the world lookin’ hot and causing trouble when you were still in diapers.”

“I said I was _ four _,” Sora scoffed.

“And I didn’t stutter.” Vanitas got to his feet and offered his hand to Sora.

Sora took it and Vanitas immediately dropped him. “Come on, man.”

“When are you not going to fall for that?” Vanitas offered his hand again, and again Sora took it. Again, Vanitas dropped him. He started to laugh as Sora got to his feet on his own despite Vanitas’ still outstretched hand.

They walked through a pair of laughably huge wooden doors and into the courtyard where Sora had met Donald and Goofy. His eyes misted with tears again. Vanitas glanced sideways. “Ven’s twenty-four, technically. Even though he’s been asleep that whole time. Do you think we age?”

Sora dragged the heel of his hand over his eyes and chuckled. “Try not to think too hard, Vanitas.”

“I was created in his image, so I might actually be twenty-four.”

“I’m pretty sure we’re all sixteen, bro.”

“Do we all share your birthday or his?”

“My head is about to explode, I’m begging you, please stop.”

A beam of light blasted them apart. Vanitas went sprawling backward and Sora flew sideways, landing spread eagle and panting against a nearby wall. “Get away from him!” A voice shouted from the other side of the courtyard.

A voice that floated in and out of his dreams and nightmares. A voice that was harder to remember the tighter he held onto it, like water slipping through his fingers. A voice that had saved him before. The voice from inside Sora’s head. And she was standing behind a dark haired girl with a keyblade pointing dead at Vanitas.

Sora scrambled in front of him with his arms out. “Wait! Wait!” He cried, “please, Namine!”

Namine put a hand on Xion’s shoulder and the two girls hesitated. “Is he... not attacking you? I thought you said he was—“ Xion began.

“He _ is _. Or at least I thought— I saw you get—“ Namine stammered.

Sora got to his feet his arms still out, shielding Vanitas. “He _ was _ up until, like, an hour ago. Listen, I can explain.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so clearly my itch for character introspection is alive and well.


	4. He's cool now, I swear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the fluff chapter before everything goes to shit again, as they're won't to do 😈 enjoy sorry for the wait!

The drive away from Neverland was (Riku: annoyingly,) easy. “It’s because Neverland pulled us in,” Riku had said, trying to explain.

Roxas hummed and shrugged his shoulders. “Sure,” he said, hands perfectly steady on the wheel. He blasted a lesser heartless and zipped away deftly. “It was that. And not because, you know.... you’re a,” he stage whispered as if Kairi weren’t sitting across from him, “_ horrible driver. _”

“Guys,” Kairi said, exasperated. “Come on, cut it out.” She had her cheek in her palm, leaning on the armrest in her seat, staring out at the thousands of stars. She knew to wait in Traverse Town. When their planet and realm blew apart, he ended up there. Rejected from the Final World, Sora’s body would likely head there or— she shuddered— to the Realm of Darkness. Every hero met their dark alter ego there. Either possessed by or forced to defend against, no matter who went down, they came back... changed. Traverse Town was what she had hoped for, what she’d dreamed of, even. Riku was here, and she was anxious to see Sora. She imagined they both were.

“I’m not seeing Traverse Town anywhere,” Roxas said after hours of driving. It was nice. It was like sailing with her dad, except instead of the stars reflected blurred in the still waves, they were real and tumbling among them. It, frankly, made Riku a little sick so he adopted his laser focus into daydreaming he were elsewhere. He too had butterflies in his stomach. Namine knew where he was— that’s what Roxas had said. His heart kept skipping beats. 

“We should have brought Namine,” Riku muttered, chewing on his fingernails.

Roxas flushed. “Listen dude, you don’t want to get into a fight with me right now. I’ll embarrass you.” Riku put up his hands as if caught passing notes in class. All his life—_ Literally _, all his life, he’d been compared to Sora, trained to be Sora while the real one slept, sought after, used, tortured, and captured because of his connection to Sora, and yet he loved him still. Being completed was like breathing proper air after spending a lifetime in a bubble. His troubles came from people who needed his power, but not from him.

Roxas was fine where he was, actually. Before the showdown at the graveyard, before Yen Sid or Ienzo or whoever scooped his essense out and fed it into a new body. Sora’s adventures were fun and amazing, filled with light and laughter. Donald and Goofy were his best buds. His favorite world of all time was Olympus Coliseum. Sora had even told Herc once that his _ friend _ was a big fan. Sora’s favorite though, was and had always been Port Royal. Or maybe Neverland. He grew up on stories of pirates and songs of the high sea. They couldn’t fathom where one ended and the other began, but Roxas swore he helped during his adventures. That he slowed time when Sora needed to airstep or held his breath endlessly for him anytime they found water he could dive into. The first person he wanted to tell about Hooks fall from the plank was Sora. He laughed, expecting to hear his, too.

And then he was gone, forced to handle things on his own. He had to foster his own reactions to things, create his own friendships. He wanted to see Namine too but wouldn’t say so out loud; wouldn’t give Riku the satisfaction. Riku was on thin ice. He held back out of respect for Sora, but his patience was a dam and Riku chipped away at it every time he opened his mouth.

Namine was draped on Sora’s shoulder, hugging him still. He had his arm around her and his face was red, but he looked pleased. “We got off to a rocky start, but he’s stopped trying to kill me,” Sora assured.

Vanitas sneered and shrugged. “I’ll neither confirm nor deny.”

“What a fast turnaround. I’ve heard you were good but, _ damn _.”

Sora had found he’d been gone for nearly a month. By all accounts, it _ was _ quite a fast turnaround. He hadn’t been impressed until they’d pointed it out.

“Listen, I do what I want. I align myself with power.”

“Behold the face of ultimate power,” Namine said, squeezing Sora’s cheeks in one hand. He laughed, sputtering, trying not to spit. She could tease, but Vanitas saw the truth. He could summon the X-blade. He was the ultimate power. Wildly, he thought perhaps that was part of Xehanort’s plan. 

There must have been some crazy in his eyes because Sora asked, “Are you alright?”

“Is this what you people _ do _ all day?” Vanitas asked, disgusted, “hold each other and ask if you’re alright?”

Sora put his arm around Namine’s waist and smiled casually, “Pretty much, why?”

Vanitas gritted his teeth underneath his pursed lips. “Why are we not wasting this dude?” Xion said from behind them all. They were sitting at a nearby cafe table and hadn’t stood to join them yet. “Listen, if you’re not having fun, you can go home.”

Xion was a people-watcher. They also liked watching birds. People were a challenge— never quite as predictable as a bird but beautiful and mesmerizing nevertheless. The fascination they had for _ life _ and life-magic was in part due to their own artificial one. Still, it didn’t take someone steeped in social etiquette to pick up on Vanitas’ bitterness. His only saving grace was that he wasn’t attacking anyone. Darkness, anger, and hate oozed off of him in thick and palpable waves. How Sora and Namine stood so close to him, Xion didn’t understand.

Vanitas scoffed, looking from Sora to Xion. “And who are you supposed to be?”

“I’m him,” Xion said, pointing to Sora, “but gayer.”

“Hey,” Sora protested with a sly grin, but didn’t press any further. “She’s actually right. It’s a long—”

“They,” Xion corrected him pointedly. Sora blinked in confusion. “Not she. I’m not a girl, but I’m not really a boy either, wouldn’t you agree?”

Sora thought about that for a second. That’s right. Xion was created in a lab, concocted out of Sora’s memories, his love for Kairi, and a mannequin young Xehanort and/or Xemnas had found or made or stolen via nefarious means, as they’re won’t to do. Xion was a blend of memories and impressions from a lot of people. And then, he thought, even if he didn’t understand Xion’s reasoning behind it, his understanding or lack thereof wouldn't be a reason to ignore what he simply perceived as a peculiar request from a friend. 

“Sure, right. Okay,” he said, collecting himself and preparing to tell the story again, “_ They’re _ right, and as I was saying, it’s a long story— Xion is a... well whatever they were before, they’re their own person now. We were connected before. We might still be.” He stopped and the two of them shared a look. This look made Vanitas feel some type of way.

Minutes ago the two boys were wandering Traverse Town alone in the dead of night, talking, reeling from having nearly been flattened by Braig. Here in the company of his actual friends, Sora shone just as brightly as when he smiled and they were alone. A surge of unrighteous jealously rippled through Vanitas, physically straightening him. “Is there anyone you’re not connected to?” He asked sharply, intending it to be cutting. 

Sora chuckled and shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think so,” he said seriously, “Hey, Namine, do you still have the power to alter my memories?” Namine blinked at him and then looked hurriedly at Vanitas and back. Sora waved his hand broadly. “He’s okay now, I swear, scout’s honor.”

Vanitas threw him a filthy look.

“Well, uh. I think. Maybe, I don’t know, I haven’t tried to get in there since Castle Oblivion.”

“You could alter his memories?”

“Yea and give me some pretty gnarly hallucinations. Oh, she had this one spell that knocked me out for a year, too.”

“Excuse me?”

Just then, the wind began to pick up. A noise from above like blades whipping through the air announced the arrival of a ship. _ Sora’s _ ship from the looks of it although it looked banged up and muddier than he remembered. It landed beneath the rooftops in a clearing somewhere in the third district. Sora took off after it immediately, Namine on his heels.

Xion stayed behind with Vanitas. Finally, they stood from that cafe table and sauntered over to him. “So. Welcome to the team.” They wagged both of their index fingers in mock celebration. 

“Who’s that?” Vanitas asked, nodding ahead.

“Kairi, probably. Or Roxas, my best friend. That’s who Namine’s been texting. Riku’s probably with them. Have you met them?”

“‘Course I have, what kind of question is that?”

Xion put up their hands. “There were so many people at the last stand, I couldn’t keep it all straight. And I swear at least four of them looked exactly like you.” Vanitas’ lip curled and he glanced at them, baring his sharp teeth. Unphased, they said. “Oh come on, that’s funny! You see, because you, Sora, Roxas, and Ven have the same,” they gestured, “situation.”

Vanitas scoffed. He wasn’t used to being so hopelessly on the outside of things. He thought he was left out in the cold before, but he knew everything that Xehanort did. While his plans were in motion, every player on the board was a moving piece with a full biography to read about within his research. Master Xehanort was gone, his notes scattered, and the heroes persisted. He had the sudden urge injure Xion, and then he wondered what was destined for him if heroes were destined to rise.

The heavy double doors flew open to reveal a courtyard, a battered Gummi Ship, and three teenagers sprinting toward them. Kairi would have been in the lead if sheer will was enough to propel her. Namine was smiling and waving as they approached. 

“Roxas,” she called, “Riku! Kairi! Look who I found!”

The trio converged on Sora and piled onto him. Riku and Roxas wanted dignified and separate greetings, Kairi was almost hysterical, and Sora found himself hopelessly off balance— The four of them ended up collapsing together in a heap on the ground. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, guys! I’ve been gone less than a month!”

“It could have been longer than that, you idiot!” Kairi yelled, punching him in the arm.

“It could have been ten years, you asshole!” Riku helped, punching his other arm. Sora criss-crossed his hands to soothe his throbbing biceps. Riku was almost laughing. Half of his indignation was an act, mirroring Kairi. 

Roxas was the first to clamber to his feet. He helped Sora to his and collected him into a proper hug, a tight one. His heart felt like it had been shoved in ice water. He felt numb and the numbness was spreading, but already he felt stronger, crisper, whole... and yet somehow serene all at once. Like swimming in the ocean. “Dude,” Roxas said, “You fucking dick, don’t you _ ever- _“ The hug had turned into a headlock in one quick, fluid motion. Sora flailed but Roxas had a firm grip. “I swear on Yen Sid’s underpants the next time I’m forced to hunt you down, there will be blood.”

“I missed you, too,” Sora said, smacking Roxas’ hip until he released him. He whispered something to him, and then he was fading into the background. Immediately, he was scooped into another hug. A softer one, in softer arms. The arms of a girl who smelled like lilacs and lavender flowers. Kairi’s red hair brushed his neck. It felt unreal that this reunion was happening so soon after their last. Unreal that Vanitas possessing him outside of Shibuya had started this whole thing. Kairi’s back felt unreal against his gloved hands. She was crying, which was worse than punching. All he could do was shush her. “I’m safe, okay? I’m here, Kairi. I’m not going anywhere.”

“You’re damn ...r-right you’re not,” she managed, softly grinding her knuckles into the bottom of his chin. She sniffed and wiped her nose. Sora thumbed her eyes; sweet the shape of crescent moons and sparkling blue with tears.

And last, there was Riku. He didn’t demand any of Sora’s attention. He didn’t need to. He made eye contact awkwardly and Sora floated over to him. The two boys embraced each other silently and let go. Sora was crying now and it was Riku who wiped those tears away. Sora smiled at Kairi, who put a hand on his shining face, and at Riku who was still beaming at him.

“This really _ is _ what you people do all day,” Vanitas grumbled under his breath. Twenty minutes and the reunion was still going strong. He kept his eyes on Roxas, whom he didn’t know a great deal about. He had heard from Xehanort, seen from notes, gleaned from general impressions and so forth— that Roxas was to be one of the thirteen vessels of darkness to clash with the seven bearers of light. In the end, he was a light bearer, or at the very least, no longer a conduit for darkness and evil. What’s more, he looked exactly like Ventus.

He’d had time to get used to another Ventus running around because he wasn’t the one in a coma for ten years. He knew practically that Roxas had Ventus’ face, and yet seeing him... struck some kind of visceral chord in him. He wanted to speak to him, and at the same time he wanted to tear his tongue out of his head.

Vanitas separated his thoughts into categories: rational and irrational. More often than not, he had an irrational thought which lead to an action that caused him some sort of pain. He’d go off without Master Xehanort’s order to terrorize Aqua or Ventus and he’d pay the price. He’d feel the need to make a scene and only make things worse. Maiming some kid he didn’t know was an irrational thought, but the kid was coming toward him now.

Roxas broke away from Kairi, Riku, and Sora to say hello to Namine and Xion. Vanitas lingered somewhere behind Xion and Roxas made a point to introduce himself. “You must be this Vanitas I’ve heard so much about.”

Vanitas tensed up and blended a bunch of phrases together until his brain spat out, “I can be whatever you...” He trailed off, hissing. “Uh...Didn’t mean to make it weird.” 

“You didn't, I’m just trying to figure out who I want you to be. Ooh, could you do Merlin? Or, have you met Tifa? Can you do that punch-with-a-foot move she does?” 

“Isn’t that just a kick?” 

“I can tell I’m going to like you,” Roxas decided.

Vanitas raised a skeptical eyebrow, “Just like that?”

“Just like that,” he repeated, then he looked back at Sora. “If he trusts you, so do I.”

“That’s a stupid rule of thumb, That jerk-off would trust Ansem’s heartless if he worded the apology right.”

Roxas only shrugged, still smiling. “His heart might get us into trouble sometimes, but we can handle it.” He looked down and furrowed his brow as if something were wrong, then tried again. “He’s a good guy. If he thinks you’ve changed, I believe him.”

“And how do you know I’m changed? Wait, let me guess. You two are connected.”

“What can I say?” Roxas rolled his shoulders up as the knot of his friends started to detangle. 

Riku and Kairi walked on either side of Sora, touching him in some way. Riku made fun of the stupid look on his face, the messiness of his hair by pulling it. Kairi held his arm. Roxas knew what they were doing: hanging on, for fear he’d fade away again. He could understand that.

“Nobody’s happier than me that you guys broke your old record. Seems like you do pretty well without me,” Sora was saying.

Namine appeared beside them and Kairi beamed at her. “Actually, it wasn’t us who found you. This was all Namine, she told Roxas to meet us here.”

“Huh?” Namine said, looking at all of their friends glancing her way. She hadn’t been listening to the conversation she’d floated into, but once the thanks began, her natural reactions were, “don’t worry about it!” and “of course!”

Xion, who _ had _ been listening, spoke up. “It was a breeze for her, actually. She’s being modest but it was kind of insane. Since she came back she’s.. How would you describe it, Nam?”

“I don’t-- I couldn’t say why, but I guess my powers have grown?” She looked at Xion desperately for help.

“She thinks it’s because of the reach you have, Sora. I’m not smart enough to retain the full theory, but I’m sure the jist is that: because you’ve touched so many more hearts since she’s been gone and Namine was able to manipulate your mind and memories _ before. _ With Ven, Roxas, and me out, you’re, like, a big giant transducer--”

“Conductor,” Namine corrects them politely.

“_ \--Conductor _ ,” Xion continues, losing none of their stride, “for a--a...new _ thing _, a new power, a--”

“An entirely new kind of life magic,” Namine finished. 

“I’ve been thinking of calling it Heartstring Magic. It’s like Namine has a sort of faint presence wherever you do. And you, my guy, have your fingers in a whole lot of other people’s pies.”

Sora’s head spun with that information. “No way, so she’s got--”

“We don’t know the full scope of it,” Namine continued, as if this was meant to be a reassurance. Sora didn’t need to be reassured.

“That’s _ so _ awesome. And I like that name too. It’s like... the magic that comes from the friendships we make.”

“That’s what I said,” Xion told Sora, pushing his arm. 

“I guess two votes makes it official,” Roxas said, making himself known again.

Riku looked away. Everyone in this group was somehow connected to Sora. Vanitas was Sora’s evil twin, he supposed, and Roxas was his good one. Sora and Kairi shared an unbreakable bond, to whom she already shared a bond with Namine. And Xion was in that mix as well. It was hard not to feel jealous in times like these. He knew what could happen to his heart if it got the best of him. He remembered what Mickey had taught him while they were stuck together in the realm of darkness-- lessons about patience, resilience, and open communication. “So you have a lo-jack on everyone with ties to Sora?” he asked, dipping his toe in the conversation.

“Not exactly. When Sora was in the spaces between, I could hear his thoughts and voice. I tried to go into the inbetween too, I followed the light of this voice. I don’t know exactly how. I don’t even know how big the in between is, if this is safe, or if this trick would work a second time.”

“Yea, it took us three tries to yank him through. Or I guess, _ them both _ through.”

For the first time, Riku and Kairi caught sight of Vanitas. He was standing by Roxas still, looking like a feral cat that had just been sprayed with water, all clad in dark armor and scowls. Reflexively, Riku drew his keyblade. Kairi had the good grace to simply gasp and leave it at that. “What’s he doing here?”

“It’s a long story,” Sora dismissed, “but he’s cool. He actually saved my life.”

“Inadvertently,” Vanitas assured the group tonelessly, “I was trying to save my own life.”

Everyone took a moment to react to that statement. Riku remained unconvinced. Xion was with him on that front. Kairi and Namine accepted the cease fire and appreciated that he was at the very least outnumbered. Sora was just plain ol’ delighted to have him there. 

And Vanitas, the embodiment of negativity and darkness, didn’t know _ what _ he was feeling. Tranquility, perhaps, was not a good look on him. Its strangeness made him balk at it. He wanted to be alone. The Master never spent so much time with him.

Sora brought his hands together. “Let’s head to the first district and see if that tea place is still open on main street.” He said suddenly. 

“Let’s see if anyone’s still in that shop! It would be too much to hope for Huey, Dewy, or Louie there, right? Or Leon?” Kairi asked no one in particular.

“They’re probably in Radiant Garden. And check it, now we have the time and _ leisure _ to go visit them,” said Sora, gesturing hugely with his arms. He was a cartoon, a caricature from the pages of a book, a jester, and the love of so many people’s lives.

“Isn’t that strange?” Riku added and Kairi looped her arms around both of theirs. She began walking. Namine and Xion went too, but lingered, talking closely and giggling into each other’s ears.

“They make a cute couple, right?” Roxas said to Vanitas, neither of whom had moved. “I think they’re a couple, anyway. If they’re not,” he added, suddenly excited, “maybe I should set them up.”

“What are you still doing here? Your friends are leaving,” Vanitas snapped. The more he talked, the less intimidating he sounded. When he was a bad guy, he’d been relegated to only snappy one-liners before a fight. Now, to his own ears, he heard himself whine and felt thorns bloom in his chest and tasted something acrid in the back of his throat.

Oblivious, Roxas said, “You stopped walking.” Sora had whispered to him when they were breaking their second hug. He’d said two words:

“Watch Vanitas.”

Dramatic as that sounds, it made perfect sense to Roxas when he thought about it. He knew this guy. He _ remembered _ this guy from being with Sora. He knew exactly his game and his type, and if Sora had softened him, things could go one of two ways: he could truly and actually become a hero, or he could go off like a bomb. Whichever the case may be, he needed to be surveilled. 

So Roxas would watch him, and when he got to talk to Sora without his whole menagerie, they’d really get to talk. Roxas had so much he wanted to tell him. “We had a buddy-system thing going on before, and I’m appointing myself to you,” Roxas said, which was entirely true, but said with such sarcasm that Vanitas seemed not to take him seriously.

He raised his lip, showing his pointed teeth. Rather than being intimidated, Roxas leaned closer. 

“Whoa cool,” he said, “How’d you manage that?”

“Listen, kid--”

“--pretty sure we’re the same age--”

“--just leave me alone, okay? I’ll... catch up. Or whatever.”

Roxas paused. He smiled plainly and then tilted his head. “That sounded convincing.”

Vanitas didn’t dignify that with an answer, simply turned on his heel and started to strut in the opposite direction. “You just gunna leave?” Roxas asked, “dressed like that?”

That, Vanitas wasn’t expecting. He stopped and looked down in spite of himself, then turned to snarl at Roxas.

“We’re going to a clothes store, you know.” Roxas folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. Come on, let’s find you something less unfortunate than a goth hula skirt.”

“_ You’re _ a hero?” he sneered. 

He meant that as an insult, as in heroes shouldn’t be shallow or bitchy. For Roxas, a person’s impact on the world mattered more than their attitude. And he’s seen too much to pretend to be kind or say anything less than the truth.

“I am. One of the Seven, actually,” Roxas said confidently, putting his hands in his pockets. “Come on, man,” he said a little gentler. “Sora believes in you.” 

Vanitas held up his hand and concentrated on creating a portal. He had no idea where he would go, but he wanted off of this cheerful planet, wanted to be as far away from these cheerful people as he could. Nothing happened, no magic burst from his hand. Wordlessly, he turned around and walked toward the district exit, towards everyone’s retreating backs. Xion and Namine were waving for them to hurry up. “Coming?”

Roxas grinned and skipped forward to catch up.

Vanitas couldn’t help but stare. Stare when Roxas watched a conversation, stare when he talked and laughed. He moved his hands differently than Ven. Ven was left handed and held his keyblade backwards, but he could tell by the callouses on this kid’s hands, he wields in both, the proper way. He was.... _ Modern _ in a way that didn’t altogether connect with Vanitas. But he had his face and voice. He deduced this was likely where the similarities ended, but what similarities to have. Someone with that face and that voice was not the enemy for once. Roxas was not the bane of his existence, but a boy, if a bit of a mean kid.

Sora, Kairi, and Riku swirled around each other in the boutique like planets in orbit. They never ran into each other once moving to and fro to add things to their fitting rooms. At one point the lounging music turned into something all three of them recognized and they began to dance. Kairi twirled from boy to boy. Sora’s dancing was too erratic for the genre, but his spirit matched Kairi’s. Riku, once he had finally consented to participate, looked awkward and giraffish against Kairi’s spinning. Sora swayed to him and shyly, they tried to find the pulse of the music together.

Xion was trying a short, shimmering robe on over their black shirt. Namine lifted their bangs from their eyes and tapped their nose. They drew the hood up on the robe and tightened the strings so that their face was hidden behind sequined cloth.

“I’m going to be sick,” Vanitas said, watching from an open stall. Roxas had a point about the outfit. Vanitas was conspicuous, not that that ever mattered before. Conspicuous and outnumbered. If he could just solve the former and then ditch the party; all of his immediate problems would be gone. For the second time, right after he got dressed, he tried to make a break for the door. Roxas caught his sleeve gently as he passed, but he wasn’t really paying attention. “How dare you put your hands on me,” Vanitas growled.

“Caaaaalm doooown, hold ooooonnnnn,” Roxas said, drawing out the words. It took him until he finished saying ‘on’ to shut his gummiphone off. “Okay, it’s gone. I was just texting my boyfriend--”

“The device isn’t the problem. Withdraw your hand or you’ll pull back a bloody stub.”

“How many people does this work on?” Roxas asked seriously, “with your face looking like that.”

Vanitas’ eyes narrowed. “Careful.”

“_ CaREfUl _,” Roxas mocked, making his voice a deeper pitch. “Who is that? Is that Leon? Are you supposed to be Leon right now?”

Vanitas said nothing more, just gave Roxas a piercing, murderous look. He had probably taken it too far, and had opened his mouth to admit as much when Vanitas grabbed his face in his full hand and guided him backward, outside.

“You didn’t pay for those clothes yet--”

“Why are you all up on my jock, kid?”

“I’m not! I just. Sora’s busy being gross, Xion and Namine are hanging out, I guess, and I’m not the biggest fan of Riku so,” he gestured, still in Vanitas’ grasp but with his hands free, “you won the lottery and the prize is my undivided attention.”

Another truth dipped in sarcasm, but this time Vanitas snarled and narrowed his eyes to slits and lifted the boy off his feet. “Back off. I don’t know what you _ think _ you know about me,” he began, but froze. 

The introduction was enough for Roxas to get the message. He raised his hands, “Uncle, alright? You want space, you got it.” He was saying, but Vanitas wasn’t looking at him anymore. Up above the shop in a little balcony overlooking the cobbled street below stood...

Vanitas shut his eyes tight until white spots bloomed across his vision, just so he could be sure when he opened them that she was really there.

There she was, dressed in blue, black, and flowing white, her blue hair dancing in the wind. Roxas looked over his shoulder and saw her too. “Aqua?” It was a question. He hadn’t had a lot of time with Aqua, just the idea of her. The notion of three lost friends, abandoned by time and by Mickey. Sora and Roxas hadn’t even heard details of their adventures. They were almost strangers. But Roxas kept them in the loop.

Vanitas saw things differently. He’d always admired this woman deep down, which meant that Ventus must have. There were the seeds of a juvenile crush on her deep in there as well, but Vanitas was Ventus’ dark mirror. He felt a horrid swell of emotion whenever he saw her. Felt his stomach lurch when he taunted her. It was disgust and jealousy,ill-will and wrath. 

And of Love. The opposite of love wasn’t hate; love has no opposite. He _ loved _ this woman fiercely. Corrosively. All-consumingly. He clutched his chest at the sight of her. Terra emerged behind her and coaxed her inside. She went, and was gone from view. Vanitas didn’t even realize he’d dropped Roxas and was hurrying toward the stairs until he was already most of the way up it.

Roxas scuttled after him. “Vanitas,” he said urgently, but he wasn’t listening. He pressed his body to the door and it slid open noiselessly. Roxas thought he’d burst through, but he just stood there in the small gap. Eavesdropping. The scene beyond featured a well lit corridor, filled with warm, rustic lamp fixtures. Terra held Aqua in his arms. They kissed and swayed and didn’t seem to notice that they were being spied on. “Vanitas,” he whispered again, softer now. 

They could make themselves known. They were all on the same team now, right? Roxas didn’t know the history with this guy, only that he was bad news and had a putrid aura. But the way he stared with wide eyes... Roxas could tell something dramatic was about to happen.

A boy who looked just like him entered from a bend in the corridor. Aqua and Terra saw him approach and drifted apart just enough to receive him. “They’re not in District 2. I thought you said they’d be here?”

“Roxas told us they’d be here,” Terra said, and Vanitas’ eyes slid sideways, to Roxas hovering at his shoulder.

Aqua addressed them both. “That’s what I was trying to tell you, I found them. I think they’re just downstairs.”

“If you’re trying to trick us into walking passed that cafe again—,” Terra began, but Ventus held up his hand to interrupt.

“Would another fruit tart be the worst thing?”

If Vanitas felt fragile and in conflict upon seeing Aqua, the well of emotions overflowing within him now made him feel totally shatterable. They were coming closer. Vanitas jerked backward and yanked Roxas through a dark portal. The two boys reappeared on a nearby rooftop just as the wayfinder trio spilled back out onto the balcony.

“Vanitas,” Roxas said again, startled.

“_ You _ told them we were here?”

“Yea, that we had found Sora. Before I left Destiny Islands I promised to keep everyone updated.” He knew what it was like to sit and worry. Lea, Isa, and everyone who stayed behind would be frantic with it if they’d all just disappeared like Sora had. Vanitas grimaced and stomped on Roxas’ chest. All the air left him and he sputtered, shocked and alarmed.

“_ You brought him here _ ,” Vanitas said, his teeth bared. There was pain behind his eyes. It didn’t seem like he was even hearing him anymore. There was a keyblade in his hand. Black and brown, solid looking and deadly. Roxas summoned Oblivion and _ just _ in time he parried a downward blow. The edges of their keyblades tangled and got stuck within each other and they were caught in a stalemate.

Roxas was entirely caught off guard, but he recognized that snarling voice. He sputtered and blurted, “I-it ..was you! It was you I heard in the in-between, right? You were crying out— when Sora was lost in that city, you cried—“ Vanitas wavered, brought back to the present. He launched a new attack, but Roxas blocked that too. “I thought it was Sora and I tried to follow it like Namine.” Vanitas lashed out again and then stopped.

He hadn’t seen anyone else when he was confined to the pitch black reliquary of Sora’s inner heart. Hadn’t seen anyone or heard anything but Sora while trapped as his shadow. The last time he was there, he’d heard voices. He thought, perhaps, just one voice echoed a half dozen times, but he began to wonder if they were a choir or those connected to Sora. If he had access to this...this heartstring light magic. Roxas seemed to have the same thought. “You heard them, right? Let’s just go back down.” Beyond Roxas’ head, Vanitas could see the wayfinder trio descending the stairs and heading toward the boutique. They were inconspicuous on this roof. None of them even looked up. They just disappeared within the open door. 

Vanitas’ keyblade vanished.

Roxas hesitated, then got to his feet, straightening his new outfit. “You’re prickly, aren’t you.”

  


The boutique erupted with noise when Aqua, Ventus, and Terra arrived. The separate groups seemed to dissolve into one as greetings were exchanged. “What a cute hat,” Aqua told Kairi, who fingered the brim and smiled.

“So she’s the mastermind?” Ventus had his arm around Namine’s shoulder. Xion appeared from the dressing room just to agree.

“Absolutely!”

“So go over it again with us? I may have heard of such magic before,” Aqua said sagely, and the spectrum of Namine’s new ability was retold. Aqua was a great mage, one of the greatest of her age and certainly the most capable one in this room. She listened to what the young woman had to say and put her hand gently on her shoulder. The magic of the bonds created between two hearts had always been passive, like empathy or a strong intuition. Namine had sharpened it like a spear— or perhaps, smoothed it into a compass and used it like a tool. If that could be done, than did any of their friends ever need to get lost ever again?

“Where’s Roxas?” Ventus asked, looking around.

Sora looked around too and blanched. “With Vanitas,” he said immediately.

Terra’s expression darkened, “Vanitas is here?”

“That’s good though, remember? We were looking for him, too,” Ventus explained to Sora. It didn’t occur to him that Roxas might have been in danger. Since the events of the graveyard, Ventus was convinced Vanitas’ nature— his _ true _ nature— was absolute neutrality. He had his theories about how this could be true and Aqua had a spell in the works that might help.

“He came with me. He found me when I was lost, he haunted and possessed me, used me to escape. We.. we have to find Roxas.”

Riku looked unimpressed and not in any kind of hurry. “I thought you said he was chill now.”

“It’s tentative chill. He’s kind of a mine square right now.”

“He might not be like that for long,” Ventus said, “Aqua, Terra, and I, well. We’ve been under a spell for a while now.”

“What kind of spell?” Asked Kairi, her eyebrows drawing upward with concern.

“A spell that would keep us from moving on without each other,” Aqua explained, “A spell that would preserve our hearts and bodies. The most powerful Stopra I’ve ever enacted.”

“_ You _ enacted?” Riku repeated.

“Yes, on the three of us long ago, right before our adventure started. When we lost and were thrown to our separate oblivions, my spell kept living in our wayfinders. We don’t have them anymore.” She looked at Terra, her large eyes wet with tears.

“We left them with our Master. Without him, we wouldn’t have been bonded in the first place. Without them, the spell is eventually going to need to end.” He said.

“And since Vanitas was a part of me, if he still existed I knew he’d be affected too,” Ventus finished. “And I knew I had to warn him.”

“Well he still exists,” Vanitas snapped from the doorway, “And he doesn’t need jack shit from you.” The effect his reappearance had on the room was immediate. Everyone either jumped or gasped or edged away from the archway reflexively. Even though he was just as small and spiky headed as Sora, he had a huge, unpleasant presence.

“How did you survive? How did you make it here?” Ventus asked, reeling.

Vanitas glanced at Sora and back at Ventus. “I hitched a ride. Leave me out of whatever you’re conspiring,” he added with distaste, shifting his gaze to the old Keybladers. “If you stay out of my hair, I’ll stay out of yours.”

Ventus began biting his lip. “That’s just it, I don’t think we can. Aqua figures when the spell ends, we’d all know it like it or not.” Aqua and Terra moved in front of him a little. Imperceptibly so to those in attendance who didn’t care to see them. Sora, Kairi, and Riku were still keeping each other close. Xion and Ventus stood side by side. Namine was between Terra and Ventus still, but Vanitas noticed the little shift anyway and resented it. He’d done nothing wrong, _ yet _. He’d given them plenty of reason to be suspicious of him up until now... but would he settle for being tolerated?

He hated them. He wanted to skin and peel them all like grapes. Ventus especially, then Terra, then Aqua last so she could watch. He wanted to watch Ventus suffer, wanted to burn the heart right out of his chest. Born of all this rage, anxiety, and hatred, blue-black dots oozed out of the floor. A gaggle of floods appeared at the group’s feet. The boutique clerk yelped and pressed himself to the shop wall. Everyone summoned a keyblade— Everyone except Namine, Sora, and Vanitas. 

“Wait!” Sora shouted, jumping into the center of the storm with Ventus and Vanitas. Ventus’ keyblade, the Wayward Wind was poised to strike at Vanitas’ throat, but the expression on his face didn’t match such violent intent. The boy looked sad, heartbroken even. Nothing happened and nobody moved. The floods twitched and spasmed but leapt at no one, attacked no one. Ventus looked around at them curiously. So did Sora. Vanitas’ shoulders began to tremble.

Kairi spoke first in the ensuing silence, her keyblade falling limply to her side. “They’re actually kind of cute, aren’t they?” She said brightly, stooping to examine one. They were smooth to the touch, like velvet on top of rubber.

“Vanitas, please,” Sora begged him.

“We might be able to help you,” Ventus said.

Vanitas clapped his hands over his ears and wailed. It felt like a thousand tiny blades were cutting into his heart, shredding it. To _ trust _ or _ love _? 

“We don’t have to fight,” Ventus said, lowering Wayward Wind and holding out his hand instead. “We could be...” He struggled to find the word.

“Brothers,” Sora supplied.

More floods seeped out of the wooden floor but still, none of them hurt anyone. A few of them were curiously dancing outside. The clerk went from cowering to scratching his bald head beneath his bowler cap.

Vanitas opened his eyes. He caught Sora’s face, his eyes wide and hopeful. He caught Ventus’, and knew he was in agreement. He looked down. “So trust us.” Ventus pleaded.

Vanitas’ chest began to ache. He reached toward Ven’s hand and shook it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im going to proofread this again....tomorrow.


	5. Tempestuous

The day was long and still going. Everyone had spilled out of the boutique and into the town square proper. Xion was swinging from a lamp post making idle conversation with Namine who sat cross-legged on the ground, her sketchbook balanced on her knee. The floods Vanitas had produced were still milling around because no one had dispatched them. They were doing no harm and a quick explanation from Aqua revealed that they were manifestations of Vanitas’ energy.

They looked sharp and menacing, but when they weren’t trying to cut you with their razor sharp talons they were just strange shapes with red eyes. Riku studied them with Kairi, keeping an eye on her in case they all suddenly changed their mind. Vanitas _ had _ been outnumbered, but if he could dream these up on command.... And it troubled him that he created them while anxious; what would happen if he was angry? He and Ventus left together first and had been huddled at the large gate ever since. At first, the two boys looked to be arguing. Now it looked plain awkward.

“Let them be,” Kairi pressed, touching Riku’s arm so that he would look at her instead of over at Vanitas. She held a flood in her arms. It squirmed listlessly between her chest and forearm. Riku gave a start and pulled her hand toward him. “Riku!” The flood fell and she tried to catch it, but it landed as a blue spot on the floor. It swirled itself into a circle and slithered beneath their feet, moving elsewhere and jumping out of the ground. “What did you do that for?”

“We don’t know him, we don’t know the extent of his powers and we don’t know the extent of Aqua’s either. We don’t know what’s going to happen so we should go to the Mysterious Tower.”

“Why do you always say that?”

“Yen Sid’s never been anything but helpful. And if we go through him, he’ll tell Mick next time he sees him.”

“Riku—“

“I’ve just been through too much to lose you now. I know Sora trusts him, but a controlled environment never hurt anybody.” He caught Kairi’s eyes and fell into them. They say when you look at something you like or someone you love, time seems to freeze. The two of them gazed into each other’s eyes for a moment, then Riku looked at Sora. 

He was further away with Roxas, who slapped a new gummiphone into his hands. “Swiped this from Chip and Dale’s hangar. Figured they’d be more glad you’re okay than pissed at me for taking it.”

“That’s a fair and probably true statement,” Sora said, chuckling. His eyes fogged with tears when he looked directly at him. Being with Roxas— beside him— was a dream come true. He almost didn’t believe it was real after everything that happened. Hadn’t he just been disowned from the Final World? Working together, there wasn’t anything they couldn’t do, including tracking him down. Gratitude and an overwhelming wave of the warm-fuzzies struck him and he hugged Roxas again.

“Hey, c’mon man. Be cool,” Roxas said, but he stepped a little closer and patted Sora’s back consolingly. He was privately glad he was so happy to see him though. “Tell me everything that went down.”

Sora held him at arms length again and opened his mouth, but no words came. He closed it and started to shake his head. A fat tear leaked from his eye and he staunched it hurriedly. “I—“

“Do you want me to go first?”

Sora grinned and nodded. “Let’s grab something to eat, I’m crazy hungry.” 

Roxas followed him into the well lit alcove that ended in a bakery, still in view of everyone else. “Well first off,” he began, “ponytail can’t drive to save his life, and Kairi was a fairy.”

“Wait, what?”

“I _ know _.”

Aqua and Terra lingered by Ventus and Vanitas, ready to step in if things suddenly grew volatile. Sora might trust Vanitas but they sure did not. They were speaking in hushed tones when Ventus yelped with laughter. Terra bristled and Aqua put a hand to his cheek. “He’s a part of him, remember? If my guesses are right—“

“When has the universe ever given us a break, Aqua?” He said quietly. He grabbed her hand and kissed the tips of her fingers. He had come back and he fought for his life in the graveyard. He buried his father and tried to make sense of everything Xehanort stole from him— his body, his sense of security, his power, darkness, and rage. 

Through all of that the only constant was Aqua. Some way or another she had always tried to drag him back to good, to light, to her and Eraqus. She fell to darkness trying to save him. There were so many things he’d never forgive himself for, and that was the second to the top of the list. 

She said the only thing she could say at a time like this. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. But whatever it is, we’ll meet it together.” Riku appeared at his side and Aqua’s gaze shifted. Terra looked behind him and they were both watching him and Kairi approach. 

“We should go to Yen Sid’s tower,” Riku said to them without preamble.

“That’s a good idea,” Aqua seconded, “WIll we all be going? Do we all have transportation?”

That was a good question. Riku and Aqua looked out to their scattered party. Riku’s eyes lingered on Vanitas, and they made the briefest of eye contact.

“I gave Sora a big dramatic goodbye. You were there, do you remember it?” Vanitas was saying. Ventus nodded, his arms folded, leaning on the heavy wooden doors that led out of the district. “It feels,” He hesitated as Riku caught his eye. “Anticlimactic, being here afterward.” 

He didn’t know what to _ say _ to Ventus. He’d only held resentment and animosity toward him. He still did. Not a lot of reasons stood between the reality of a fight right now. Xehanort had tortured Ventus and eventually extracted Vanitas _ from _ him. He’d kept them separate and dehumanized them both in different ways. With Ventus, he would manipulate easily, yanking his strings to and fro, Vanitas there to help make sure the idiot didn’t ruin something he wasn’t supposed to ruin. 

And in Vanitas’ case, he used him like a sharpened tool, a spear to be wielded and then put away for further use. At the time he wasn’t actively setting his convoluted plan in motion, he was alone in various gilded cages. First, it was a replica of Scala Ad Caelum and the classroom Xehanort used to hold dear as a kid. Then it was the graveyard. Then, for years while Terranort faked amnesia, it was the bowels of Ansem’s lab. No one was allowed to know of his existence in the era of organization thirteen or the dreamers— Vanitas was a first and failed experiment.

So logically he didn’t have any reason to hate Ventus like he did. But he _ did _. Intrinsically and with all of his heart. He was in severe conflict and every new sound or noise put him on edge. “Don’t worry,” Ventus told him, carefully like he were approaching a deer in the forest, “I’m sure something crazy’ll happen.” He winked at him and Vanitas’ expression remained unchanged.

That was until somebody started doing flashy light tricks from across the courtyard. Everyone’s eyes were drawn to the light show to find that it was Roxas teleporting from in front of Sora, the roof of the bakery, the balcony, and back. It was slow at first, and then he started hurtling towards these portals as fast as he could. Roxas was something of a speed demon, and he didn’t even notice the rukus he was causing until he stopped. Sora began to clap, and then the trend rippled. Namine and Ventus joined immediately. Xion and Kairi joined once they realized who the tricks were coming from.

“What the hell was that?” Sora asked him.

“I literally have no idea. I’ve never done it so fast. With the dark corridors, Lea, Xion, and I would try to race each other.”

Everyone was filing slowly into Roxas’ orbit. “Oh that’s right! Axel made an obstacle course for me that time I lost my keyblade. But _ this _?” They gestured to Roxas, meaning the new portals he was able to create.

“I honestly have _ no idea _ . We were in Neverland, Kairi flew into a dark corridor I made and it just... did this. And is still _ doing _ this.” He waved his hand and a new curtain of light appeared behind him. By now, Aqua had walked up. She wandered to the vertical pool of light and reached her hand toward it. 

“Flew into it, you say?”

“I was a pixie at the time. It’s a long story.”

“You were in Neverland?” Aqua asked. Kairi looked at her, dumbstruck.

“You had, like, one clue!”

Aqua smiled and bit her lip. “I’m a puzzler. And that accounts for the change, pixie dust is pure light magic. In the hands of a princess that’s sure to have all sorts of affect.”

“Do we still have any fairy dust in the Gummi ship?” Roxas asked with a smirk, bumping elbows casually with Xion. The thought to convert their portals as well so that they might have another race was in both of their minds, but Riku brought it upon himself to remind everyone of their larger goal. 

“We should go to Yen Sid’s tower,” he proposed to the group at large, “Everyone who wants to, that is.”

“We’ll be safe with Mickey’s Master while we wait for the spell,” Aqua told Terra and Ven, and that was all the convincing they needed.

“We can drop you guys off there,” Xion said.

“Or we could,” Riku offered.

“Guys, what if _ I _ can?” Roxas said. Sora raised his eyebrows but he went on, “What if these are dark corridors but for the good guys? About time, right? What if these can travel between worlds?”

“Maybe we shouldn’t test it in a group setting,” Riku suggested, but at the same time Sora said,

“I’ll go with you.”

“Great!” Roxas said, completely ignoring Riku, “that’s settled, Mysterious Tower, you said?” Roxas turned and pulled the curtain of light aside. It undulated beneath his fingers as if pushed by a light breeze. It reminded him of the time he first saw Namine staring down at him from behind an almost sheer dressing. Sora was on his heels even with the protest in the air.

They didn’t appear in the betwixt but on the psychedelic lawn in front of Yen Sid’s tower. Roxas blinked and looked around. “That actually worked?” He said more to himself. Sora looked at him and he sputtered, “I mean, I had every faith that it would, but it was pretty easy. I just thought about it and...”

Kairi stuck her head through the portal and gasped. “Whoa,” she said, her freckled cheeks flushing with astonishment. She’d been here before, it was the realization about the portal and her involvement that stunned her. She stepped through and took Sora’s hand. “Well look at that,” She said.

When everyone was through, Xion and Namine confessed that they wanted their new outfits enchanted, so they’d all visit Yen Sid together. Really it felt like no one wanted to leave the group. The pull of their combined light made them a beacon for heartless. More creatures than ever flooded the halls and platforms at each floor, but out of the ten of them nine of them were born to fight. Sora took it upon himself to escort Namine, but the other eight were whirlwinds.

“Sora, that thing is dangerous,” she said suddenly.

He looked at her quickly, his heart leaping into his throat only to find that she was pointing at a heartless swinging dangerously above their heads. It fell with an animated _ spoing _ but disappeared as Wayward Wind sliced through it and boomeranged back across the room. The look Namine gave him afterwards made him wonder if she knew about his secret anyway. He’d told Roxas, but maybe he wouldn’t need to tell Namine. She had all this new power and it all came from him. Whatever that meant, they were friends and she wasn’t making it a problem.

Vanitas was shockingly effective against heartless. It was amazing, he was kind of a force of nature at every stage. He’d even grabbed Xion before they slipped off of one of the guardless staircases. 

He tried to brush it off like it was no big deal when Sora smiled at him after he’d done it. “She’d’ve had to run back up all of those stairs,” he’d said, as if they wouldn’t have been far too injured for stairs after a fall through a magical pocket dimension.

“They,” Sora whispered to him, touching his shoulder and grinning slyly.

The old wizard was unsurprised to see them, even Vanitas at Sora’s side. He’d guessed his darkness wasn’t extinguished, but rather relocated, just as Sora was. The stronger the hero the harder to kill, no matter which side one was on. Xehanort survived more assassinations than anyone could count because he was a powerful being (and no one but Aqua could count that high). 

More than that, Aqua had kept him informed. And Roxas had kept her informed. “See?” He said prodding everyone in attendance, “What talking will get you? Everyone realize now the benefit of not fucking off the second someone else goes missing?” He gave a pointed look to Sora and Kairi, who determinedly avoided his gaze.

Aqua and Yen Sid talk about the spell she had created and everyone else shuffled into the side room. The three fairies were gone apparently, their wide room plain and vacant. A moment later they all materialized before the group of young adults, wands brandished. 

“Well look!” Red said.

“What we have!” Blue said.

“Here! A gaggle of Keybladers!” Green finished.

“Is a group of Keybladers called a gaggle?”

“I don’t think that’s right. A pod, maybe? A nest?”

“Ooh, a fellowship!”

“Madams?” Riku said, holding up his hands to address them.

“Madams!” The Blue fairy huffed, “You and that Axel character, so polite! I thought you two were the bad boys.”

“Manners are punk,” a new voice said, emerging theatrically from Yen Sid’s study. “And it’s Lea now. I changed my clothes, I stopped claiming Xehanort-trama on my taxes, I’ve gone through like six arcs.”

“Lea,” Roxas and Xion gasped in unison. They’d just seen him, but it was always a treat to be reunited again, especially in this climate where everyone had such crippling separation anxiety. Xion bumped their shoulder with his in greeting, but Roxas threw his arms around his shoulders. Axel was among the tallest of them and the effort nearly lifted Roxas off the ground.

“You’re always so happy to see me,” Lea teased him unkindly, his ears flushed, “like a fucking puppy, pull it together.”

“Yea I’d like to see you make me, face tat.” 

Little known fact it was actually Roxas’ merciless teasing that goaded Lea into doing without the markings on his face when he reformed as a somebody. He’d thought they made him look cool and dangerous, like some larger than life player on the board, a joke on his lips and a flaming chakram at your throat. He didn’t need to be that guy, didn’t _ want _ to anymore. But he’d suffer until that nickname no longer made him squirm.

“_ Anyway _,” he said pointedly, fighting Roxas into a headlock while casually continuing to address the others, “Word on the grapevine is that you found-- Ah! Sora, you’re okay.”

“Right as rain,” he said proudly, nudging Vanitas.

Axel looked from one to the other and asked no questions. Sora deflated a little.

“Aren’t you curious?” He asked.

“I don’t need the headache,” Lea answered with a smile, looking down at Roxas.

“I actually fuck with that. That’s self-care,” Roxas agreed from beneath his arms. Lea smiled into the back of Roxas’ blonde head. 

“I’m glad you’re all okay,” Lea continued. “Isa told me you would be but I was totally freaked.”

“You could have come with us,” Riku offered, but Lea was shaking his head before the thought was complete. 

“Four's a crowd sometimes. Got it memorized?”

Vanitas looked down at his hands, and then out through the archway at Aqua still talking with Yen Sid in hushed tones over a large book. Terra and Ven were laughing together at his side. The sound made Vanitas jump and they stopped immediately, retraining all of their attention on him. Suffocating him under a blanket of questions. He answered none of them, so they decided to check each other instead.

When they were sure the spell wasn’t yet wearing off they went back to each other. Vanitas actively tuned them out, trying to catch Aqua’s eye. When he did he jerked his head beckoning her over.

She held his gaze and then said something to Yen Sid he couldn’t hear. She slid off of the top of his desk and he watched her go, his eyes sliding to Van half obscured passed the archway. “What?” She said.

Her curtness stung. He put a hand to his chest and straightened up. “Are we or are we not on the same side now?” He asked her.

She snarled at him, but as she held his gaze, she began to soften. She felt guilty for saying what she said and looked away. He didn’t know what he would say to her but he opened his mouth to try. He didn’t expect her to beat him to it. “Sorry, habit. What is it, Vanitas?”

He sighed and looked at her, blowing air out of his puffed up cheeks. “Gods. So that’s it, we’re on the same side now?”

“Apparently, right? How are you feeling.”

He could tell she was trying to steer the conversation away from intimate to grand. From emotion to physical status. Vanitas wouldn’t let her. “Pretty shitty, actually. Like I’m going to be sick.” Aqua felt his forehead. He was actually quite warm, beads of his sweat leapt off of him and stuck to the back of her hand instead. He slapped her hand away and went on, “That’s not what I meant.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” she hissed. “You’ve taken... so much from me.” She hugged herself for a moment, and then seemed to realize. She put her hands on her hips instead. “It’s going to take me a while to forgive you... but....” she held out her hand. “Welcome to the fold.”

He took her hand eagerly. He’d never touched her hand before, or perhaps he had but never gently and with non lethal intent. Reaching for her seemed to take an age. He wondered whether this was the first in shrugging Xehanort's expectations of him. What a life he’d lead if he could walk in pure light in spite his Master’s old abuses?

Vanitas felt faint and then was filled with a sense of warmth. They began to glow, and then a pure and blinding white light began emanating from all four of them. He felt like he was being blasted apart by white hot energy, but the other three seemed fine, bathed in this light. Vanitas screamed, a bone chilling, heart stopping scream and then he was stilled. His eyes could still move. His head had reeled backward but he could see that the others were frozen too.

And suddenly, it was over. Vanitas staggered backward and Ventus dissolved into a crumpled heap on the ground. Aqua and Terra stood facing each other, wind rippling their robes gently. They each looked slightly taller. Terra’s hair was almost down to the bottom of his shoulder blades and in a ponytail. He had the beginnings of salt and pepper facial hair the color of ash and cedar, reminiscent of Eraqus’. Aqua’s blue hair was longer too and braided in a complicated plait down her left side. The two looked at each other, and then down at themselves. Their clothes were suddenly too small for them. Aqua giggled at Terra, running her knuckles along his chin and he simply looked dazed at the sight of her.

The top of the tower had exploded into debris. Chunks of roof and slabs of drywall hung in the air surrounding them in a dome, opening them to Yen Sid’s study beyond the fairy’s quarters and to the heavens. There had been white stars painted on the roof, except now those stars twirled idly in zero gravity. The rest of the keybladers and Namine seemed unaffected. Sora had his hands up, and Riku was shielding Kairi with his strong arms-- but they all too felt bathed in light. Warm, content... and definitely alarmed.

Ventus beamed up at his friends, then looked down at himself. He patted his shoulders and gripped his legs before scrambling to his feet. “Do I.. look any different?” He indeed did not. Neither him nor Vanitas did, except that Vanitas was smoking slightly, baked in the aftermath of lifting the spell.

“What the _ fuck _ was that?!” he demanded.

Aqua raised her eyebrows at him. Her mouth hung open for a moment and then she closed it, trying and failing to come up with an explanation. The spell between she and Terra was broken and the two of them devoted all of their energy to Ventus and helping him to his feet. He was the shortest before, but the height difference was laughable now. But the two of them were just happy that Ven seemed in-one-piece.

Vanitas went completely ignored. He decided in an instant that it had gone on long enough. “That-- we could have been obliterated, what was that!” He yelled yanking Ventus out of Aqua and Terra’s loose grasp. Vanitas held his jacket in his fist. He drew him back and grabbed him by the neck with the other hand. “What kind of trick is this?”

Ventus struggled, “Vanitas, please--” it was all happening too fast. He couldn’t scramble together a sentence let alone a solid defence.

Aqua and Terra were right there and their keyblades in hand faster than Ven could blink. Vanitas dragged him backward and he slipped in his grasp, trying desperately to get away.

And then, Vanitas froze. A streak of light appeared behind him, the vertical swipe of a keyblade. Vanitas’ focus was broken, Ventus managed to stumble away and into Terra’s arms. Aqua pointed her blade at Vanitas, but he was turning slowly in place, rounding on the one who had hit him.

Sora, with the Oblivion in his hand, leapt out of range as Vanitas charged toward him. He yelled like a caged animal, lightning prickling the ground in a large circle encompassing all of them. A moment later, bolts rained down within the area of effect, and when they struck one person, it chained to others closeby. It was pandemonium for exactly three seconds before Roxas grabbed Oblivion back from Sora, took a running jump, and collided with Vanitas midair.

“Wait, no!” Ventus moaned, “stop fighting! We can--” What. Figure this out? Go home? What had happened?! One minute they were standing together and the next Vanitas is out for blood. No one saw, no one felt what he’d experienced in that bolt of light, but what he saw shook him to his very core.

Roxas had knocked him higher. For a beat, the battlefield was still, but then Vanitas fell from the sky, purposefully toward Sora. Riku appeared out of nowhere to parry, his teeth gritted. Vanitas possessed awesome strength-- much more than Sora ever had, even when he got a direct boon from Kingdom Hearts. He was always kind of weak. _ Vanitas _ though-- Riku strained, his heels making cracks in the pavement. He sliced his keyblade in an arc above his head and Vanitas flew away again. “Sora, I know you want to keep him, but you can’t keep picking up strays. This one’s foaming at the mouth.”

Sora and Kairi looked up at him with stars in their eyes. Roxas snapped his fingers in front of Sora’s face. “What’s the plan?” But before he could answer, Vanitas came back down to the tower with punishing force. In a blink, he was right in front of Sora— and then he was _ phasing _ into him. His space magic cloaked him in darkness and it was as easy as stepping through a door. They blended into one, Vanitas hungry and Sora stunned. Van needed something from him. Needed access to a weapon that would rid this pitiful plain of existence of the boy called Ventus.

Electricity crackled in the sky, wreathing the Sora/Vanitas hybrid as if glowed and flashed, more darkness than light. Then, it pelted toward Ventus. He gasped and held his forearms up across his face. He made contact with an opaque shield, rippling pentagons and a soft blue-violet hue around its edges. Terra stepped around the shield and sliced at the pillar of pure energy attacking his friend. Riku and Kairi dismissed their weapons and ran forward. 

“Sora!” they cried.

But Terra had no bias for the boy. Vanitas was a _ hated _ creature. He had lured Ventus out of the safety of the Land of Departure and set in motion the series of events that lead to Eraqus’ death. He cut at him again, but this time, a keyblade formed between them. Not Void Gear, not the Kingdom Key, but the X-blade once again. 

Vanitas grinned at the look of shock and horror on everyone’s faces as he lifted the handle high.

_ No.. _ Sora’s presence within him protested weakly. Sora was half light and darkness, but Vanitas was _ pure _ darkness. He had control of Sora’s darkness, and a tight grasp on their shared body. They’d stay as one until Vanitas eviscerates Ventus. He saw in the light his purpose, his... fate or destiny, his reason for being. He felt bathed in it. He writhed in agony at the blast, pure like the one that dissolved Xehanort’s Heartless. That pain turned to shock and horror, disbelief, and fermented quickly into unbridled rage.“You think I’m some sort of moron? You think you can just pull me in just to do away with me?” He said in a low, echoing growl, two voices rolled and twisted into one. His eyes flicked to Aqua and narrowed. 

Sora understood, finally, what was going on. _ They weren’t trying to hurt you on purpose, _he pleaded.

“Shut up.” Vanitas said viciously and out loud to no one.

_ They didn’t know! How _ could _ they have known? _

“I said _ shut up! _” In an almighty pulse of dark energy, everyone-- Riku, Kairi, and Roxas, the wayfinders still in range, Xion, Namine, and a couple of large heavy bookshelves went flying away from them.

Sora twitched. He brought his hands up in front of his face and winced. He was pitch black and swirling with dark energy. A pale blue glow fell onto his fingers-- a glow he recognized. He looked down at himself, no longer pulsing with electricity and anti-gravity, but pure swirling darkness. He chuckled.

_ What did you do? _ Vanitas asked frantically from within.

Sora summoned the X-blade and surveyed it. His eyes were pale as the moon, with pupils the size of pinheads. Riku shuddered. Kairi got up and hurried forward.

Roxas grabbed her arm. “That’s his anti-form, there’s no reasoning with him when he’s like that,” he said at once. He grabbed onto Riku’s jacket too, “We have to trap him someplace, we have to get him into a corner, trust me. He’ll tire out and go back to himself. I hope.” Kairi wrenched her arm out of his grip and sprinted forward without him. Roxas turned to Riku pleadingly. “Please, Riku.”

Riku glanced at Sora again, nodded, and followed him. Roxas collected Namine and Xion and motioned for them to follow as he slunk up the shallow staircase, back up to that narrow balcony. Xion didn’t need to be told twice. Once Sora had fused with that thing, the dark energy in the air became palpable. They could choke on it, in fact. They stumbled after Roxas, Namine’s hand tight in theirs.

Kairi summoned Destiny’s Embrace and bounded across the room. The image of Anti-Sora battled with the visage of the pure column of darkness he’d become when Vanitas possessed him. It was a flash, Kairi almost didn’t catch it. The two sides were at war within the darkness. She brought her blade down on him.

This was an electrified situation. This was a KO first ask questions after scenario. This dark creature wielded the x-blade. She looked around for Riku, expecting him to be at her side but he wasn’t. Sora absorbed the blow and scuttled backward like a spider sprayed with water, then, he bounced toward her. If you asked her whether she’d ever be scared of Sora this morning she’d say nothing he could ever do or become would ever frighten her.

But she was frightened now.

This wasn’t Sora. His sharp teeth and pitch black skin dripped darkness. He flashed into the solid silhouette of swirling darkness once more and she knew that the Vanitas aspect of this being would have no problem at all cutting her heart out.

“Sora! Listen to me!” She cried, blocking another of his blows. The X-blade was heavy against hers. She felt the metal weaken as if it were butter, sliding apart against the sharpest edge. He brought it up just for a moment to gain leverage into slamming it back down. She dashed out of his way with a handstand, but landed on her back on the hardwood floor.

“Solid form. I’ll teach you how to nail that landing when we’re done here,” a woman said, and Aqua stepped in front of her Rainfell drawn. Terra appeared beside the creature, but it disappeared in another blur of darkness. He reappeared in the air with his hands raised. The tower began to tremble. “Take cover!”

A meteoric assault rained down upon them. Kairi cast the shield around her and Aqua just in time as Aqua sent one over to Terra. Terra, meanwhile, launched himself into the air. The Ends of the Earth connected with the hybrid’s side and he pelted back down to the ground amidst the destruction he’d wrought.

“** _Enough!_ **” An almighty voice boomed from behind them all. Yen Sid stood behind his dest with both of his hands raised. His beard and his robes were whipping in a magical and feverish wind. A magical pulse flew through the air, and once the wave passed each, their keyblades disappeared. First Aqua, then Kairi, then Terra and finally the creature’s X-blade. “That’s impossible,” Yen Sid shook with the indignity of it. “That can’t be!”

He teleported the hybrid into mid air before him, holding him suspended with an unspoken magical command. He pulsed with dark energy and slowly, torturously began to fight the invisible bonds.

“Aqua, Terra, you need to--”

“Sora, it’s Ven!” A voice called from the top of the stairs. Two people ran down the stairs, Roxas, hauling Ventus.

The hybrid burst from his stasis, flipped around, and sprinted toward the door. Both sides were in agreement. That voice had belonged to Roxas and Sora needed Roxas. And Vanitas... what was wrong with Ven? _ No one _ was allowed to kill that kid but him. When they were in agreement it seemed that they were strong enough to wriggle free from the Master’s magic. Aqua and Terra raced him to the corridor, but none of them were as close as Kairi.

She stepped into the doorway and everything slowed down.

The hybrid slowed to a sudden stop right in front of her. She held her arms up, her heart beating in her throat, ears, and fingertips. She’d bring him back. If she could be counted on for one thing it was for infusing a situation with a whackload of light and tipping the scales back to the good guys favor. As she held him, a light burst from her chest and began to envelop them.

This had the opposite of the desired effect.

The hybrid twitched and writhed and howled, but eventually kicked less. By the time Aqua made it to her side he had thrown back his head and began to scream. Strangled and desperate like when things seemed hopeless in that graveyard. All of his friends were dead and Riku was being pulled apart before his very eyes. Kairi was gone. Ventus had gone away and Xehanort was finished with him, like an old magazine. He was all alone. And he was going to die.

“No...no....no! _ No! _” The two voices yelled against the light. In its glow, his darkness grew. The shadow he cast began to contribute to his physical form until he grew monstrous. It became too much and so the creature grabbed Kairi by the shoulders. It hurled her off of the side of the tower. She shrieked with horror and surprise and disappeared over the side of the multicolored roof. 

“Kairi!”

“Terra, now! Corner it!” Yen Sid yelled and focused a concentrated beam of magic toward the new, still growing image of a boy, twisted up in darkness. His clothes shifted into those strange black robes from Scala Ad Caelum... but underneath was a red jumpsuit. He was still humanoid, but he was longer, leaner, and built of pure murky darkness. The electricity from Yen Sid’s spell unsteadied him, but he flung a bookshelf out of the way to get to him. Terra struck from above but the hybrid grabbed him and flung him bodily toward a pile of rubble.

Aqua dove off the side of the tower and caught Kairi like a bride, then created a shield around them both. 

“Damn it!” Roxas said, drawing Oblivion and rushing back onto the open platform. “Magic, magic, magic.”

As one, Roxas, Riku, Ventus, and Xion hit the beast with every vein of magic they had. He was backed into a corner with his claws protecting his face. Yen Sid approached, his body able to withstand the force of the spells easily. The hybrid cried out and the wizard reached into his chest. It began to dissolve in a pool of darkness at his feet, starting in his corner and spreading beneath Yen Sid. That darkness grew rapidly, swallowing a bookshelf, sinking the corner of the great high-backed chair in the study, and covering the boy’s whole face.

A moment later everything turned upside down.

Everyone was falling again. Kairi hadn’t stopped falling since he tossed her. Everything, the floor, presumably the whole tower, and everything from within the study were free falling through the air. Kairi looked up and saw a_ building _ hurtling toward her and felt panic swelling in her chest. Aqua was still holding her, watching in terror at the whole first level was coated in inky black darkness.

Everyone was screaming, tumbling through clouds and slowing in the stars. A rising tree clipped Aqua and she fell away from Kairi violently. The screams diminished, everyone growing further and further away. She looked down at her hands and they were coated in a thin film of darkness. The obliterated tower came soaring down to meet her but just as the last corner of bright green grass faded into the color of concrete, it halted in the air.

It hung in the sky like a dark chandelier. Kairi kept falling. Blessedly long enough that she thought to do her own shield charm upon landing.

Before she had the chance to wonder if she even _ would _land, she did. She crumpled to an exhausted heap on the dead looking ground. The air smelled like sulfur and ash and of the smelliest parts of a public beach. She was trembling in the aftermath of what had happened. 

“Sora.. Oh fuck, oh Merlin, _ Sora _,” A voice from nearby cried out.

That made her try to get it together. She let herself be frightened for ten seconds, and then she sat upright. She didn’t recognize this place. It was dark and the only light came from the pale grey sky and the enormous moon hiding behind a sheet of thin clouds. She scanned the horizon to find mounds of grey, some crispy and burnt grass and some cool stone. A chill whipped through the place. She looked directly overhead to find the tower still there, still upside down, its trail of debris suspended in motion, spilling from the sky.

She got to her feet and padded carefully toward the voice she’d heard.

Two people stood with their backs to her as she approached, staring up at the sky. “Xion,” she said, and she looked the other boy up and down. “Roxas?”

He turned at the sound of her voice, “_ You, _” he said angrily.

“What, why are you looking at me like that?” Kairi asked smally. Roxas advanced on her. Xion followed him, dragging him back half-heartedly by the arm. 

“My plan would have worked. He needed to be _ contained _, you ruined our play!”

“What?” She asked. Everything had happened so quickly. She didn’t even know what he was talking about. “Roxas, I--”

“You’ve been silencing me since we left Destiny Islands! And every time you have, it was a mistake. Only this time you’ve fucked _ all _ of us instead of just Sora!”

“Roxas,” Xion said, louder now and with a forceful yank.

“Look at him!” Roxas cried, and now, Kairi really didn’t understand.

She followed her gaze to where he was pointing. Up toward the moon hung a shadow. The shadow was the shape of the monster that had taken over Sora and Vanitas’ fused body. Behind the body hung the x-blade. The two of them hung stiffly in the air, the shadow’s arms spread and eyes glowing skyward. Kairi gasped and started to stammer. “Is he-- I-is he--”

“Who knows! And who knows where the others are. Who knows if we’ll _ ever see any of them again _.” He yelled. It was then that Kairi realized where they were.

They had to be in the Realm of Darkness.

The realization washed over her like a bucket of ice water. Xion pulled him toward them and scolded him in hushed tones. “Come on, we’ll get him back,” they said.

Kairi’s eyes blurred with tears. That was her and Riku almost a month ago the first time he was lost. Or rather, the first in a year and a half he was truly lost. Before that it was a different year, and before that their home had been ripped to pieces and scattered among the stars. A burst of adrenaline carried her and before she’d even made the decision to, she was running away. Back from whence she came and then up a few winding pathways until the grainy sand gave way to black dirt. The beach connected to a large tunnel filled with swollen pockets of light. She was crying too hard to see the undulating shapes in the darkness beyond the mouth of the caves. “Kairi!” Xion cried from behind her, but she kept running.

A nearby cluster of darkside heartless sagged above her. She gasped and quickened her pace to a run. And then a sprint. The tunnel got darker and twisted away from the light. She didn’t want to face the reality of losing Sora again, wanted to throw herself bodily into the darkness. She was a Princess of Light, pure of heart and full of good magic, right? She only seemed able to cause problems and lose the people she loved.

A large hand reached for her, stretching across the foggy divide.

A keyblade came spinning out of nowhere. One she recognized as hostile. These heartless she could handle, but she proved pretty powerless against everyone she’d faced so far. She felt as small and useless as she did when she was a pixie and thought Aqua really bet on the wrong horse by bestowing her power on her. Everything that made her special... came from something she’s had inside her since she was born. Some passive light.

Void Gear glanced off of the giant heartless’ hand and ricocheted back into its owner's hand. Vanitas stood there, smug faced and whole, rushing toward Kairi. She held her blade up to parry but instead, he zig-zagged around her and against the cave walls. The Darkside heartless burst into giant glowing hearts in a couple of feverish blows. Vanitas had gotten two of them, but there were dozens more. Too many.

The freed hearts lifted like lanterns, disappearing into the dark ceiling, Vanitas took Kairi’s arm and rushed with her down the length of the cave. He left turned confidently at a fork in their path and they ended up on the other side. This realm was undoubtedly huge, but Kairi swore she remembered this part of it. The ground was broken up into floating chunks of rock. A dim light glowed in the distance as clouds stirred restlessly above.

Kairi wrenched her arm out of Vanitas’ grip, suddenly remembering herself. “You--”

“Wait, let me just--” He put his hands up and took a step back. He didn’t actually have anything prepared, he just.... Saw her falling from the sky and decided to follow her. He recognized a feeling in Sora’s heart when they were merged together, and even now as a wraith or a ghost or a revenant of what he used to be, he remembered that feeling as love. Like the love he had for Aqua, only cleaner. Simpler, maybe.

“Well?” She asked impatiently.

“I had no idea any of that was going to happen.” 

“Oh and I’m a fucking idiot, I’m just going to believe that.”

“That spell--” Vanitas tried again, “--I was just... I _ needed _ to kill Ven. It’s always going to be him or me and I needed power to do it, I never meant--” He stopped because this was sounding dangerously close to an apology. He hadn’t meant to rope anybody else into it. He had just expected to suppress Sora and fulfill his destiny by doing away with Ventus once and for all. He wouldn’t apologize for seizing what he needed. But he hadn’t expected Sora to buck back like that. Whatever he’d done, whatever dark form he possessed was so powerful that he _ merged _ with his own darkness.

Somehow here he was, and that thing hung in the air. And Vanitas felt.... Great.

Better than he’s ever remembered feeling. He simply felt fear and anxiety, and a strange hollow ache he’s yet to find a name for. The absence of anger was weird. It made him feel fifty pounds lighter. His mind wasn’t clear he was just unbothered of the state of it. The sharpness in him usually dedicated to such anger was completely gone. He swaggered and then dropped to his knees.

Kairi looked down at him with her Keyblade at her side, apprehensive to approach in case this was some sort of trick. “How did you get the X-blade?” She asked gravely.

“I didn’t,” Vanitas confessed, “it’s his.”

“What do you mean, it’s his?” Kairi said, her voice trembling. 

“Master Xehanort left it to Sora.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey what's a good name for a Sora/Vanitas hybrid creature? or some fucked up golem of Xehanort's residual influence? ssking for a friend.  
but seriously so far I have no ideas and it's kind of annoying calling them "the hybrid"
> 
> i guess when in doubt he can be called ansem right? hahaha no im not going to put anyone through that, actually


	6. The Amalgamation

Aqua was shaken free from Kairi by a pulse of dark energy. It radiated off of the tower above as they fell, stemming from that single point of darkness. That powerful being used the X-blade and the realm cleaved in two. She sensed the anguish and pain in the gravity as she fell, felt her heart tighten and every muscle in her body grow slack. She cried as she fell. She was back here ... _ again _ .

Terra materialized out of nowhere and put a shield charm around the both of them. He tackled her mid-air and they careened together onto the fine black sand below. The orb of his shield broke as they rolled to a halt together and he held her. “Why didn’t you protect yourself?” He gasped breathlessly. From where he was, he could see the whole thing. He watched as his heart and best friend was hurtled into the air and into the abyss. When the tower exploded and they were sucked into this place, all the air collapsed in his lungs. He tried to hold onto Ven but his chest strap came off in his hands. More devastating still was the sight of Aqua... giving up.

“Terra,” she breathed, clutching his shoulders and staring up at him, her eyes wide and shining with frightened tears. “ _ Terra _ . I’m.... this is...”

Finally, he looked around. He knew exactly where they were. She’d described it to him all those nights she’d woken with violent nightmares. She’d wake herself screaming and he would kiss her neck and tell her she was safe. Eventually they got to a place where they could talk about it, but he’d never seen her look so scared. Around them were dunes of dark sand, fallen trees, and ominous looking rock formations. The sky was as pale as the sea. The moon hung like a dim lantern in the sky behind a curtain of clouds. “The Realm of Darkness.”

“I would rather die,” she said amidst some sort of fit. “I— last time I was here, I— _ I can’t do this again _ !”

“Shhh, I’m here, I’m right here,” Terra said lamely, but she was fighting her way out of his arms.

The adrenaline spiralled into sobs. “Terra, I can’t I’m not strong enough to—“

“You don’t have to be,” he said quickly, “I have you, okay? This time, I have you. We’re here together and you can borrow my strength.” He held her face steady with both of his hands on her jaw and cheeks. His eyes caught hers and she stilled, except for the shuddering waves of panic still pulsing through her body.

Her eyes began to relax as he got closer. Tears slid down her cheeks and he kissed her. It was chaste, experimental, and meant to impress upon her that he wasn’t going anywhere— but when he withdrew, she pulled him back in. Aqua struggled to breathe and clawed at the too-tight corset around her waist. Terra helped her undo it. She shook like a leaf while they sat there, and then eventually, lay there. Finally it was the weight of Terra’s head on her chest, his ear pressed to her heart that calmed her. She looked up at the moon with her fingers in his hair, scared to speak for fear she’d burst into tears again.

She rubbed her eyes, glanced up, then rumpled Terra’s hair and pointed. He followed her gaze and the two of them sat up. The X-Blade and the silhouette of a body hung in the sky beneath the moon. The sky glowed with strange and foreboding shapes but now that she’d seen it, the blade was unmistakable. 

“How did that— that  _ thing _ get here?” 

A sense of purpose struggled to take root in Aqua. Once she saw that strap of Ventus’ armor beside Terra it became affirmed. “We have to find Ven,” she said, “And the others.”

“There she is,” Terra said, relieved. For a second there it looked like he would have to be the responsible adult and make a plan going forward, but he didn’t exactly have the best track record with that sort of thing. He helped her to her feet, re-strung her corset, then pushed her hair back lovingly. “We can do this.” It was strange seeing him now. Behind her panic and resolve she found time to marvel at his new appearance. When the spell wore off, he grew taller and a little gaunt in the cheeks. His hair was so long it could be braided-- there was a regality in him that she came to associate with Eraqus. 

“We can do this,” she echoed with a reserved smile.

  
  


Vanitas would have been able to protect himself if Kairi had had the ridiculous idea to use force on him. He was glad that he didn’t have to, though why that was remained a mystery to him. He dedicated so much of his time and energy being bitter and volatile that anything other than that he considered out of his comfort zone. Still, when he told her the truth about everything, he tried to do so without sounding like a complete jerk. 

The stopra wore off. He’d decided to change his very nature, to change his soul and begin to embrace this absurd notion of having someone to have his back— and then he was doused in the most powerful magic he’d ever encountered. He and the wayfinders suffered the full blast of it and it felt like... a decade of hatred and vindictiveness was compounded at once into that singular moment. All thoughts of change and growth were out of the window. He was betrayed, in pain, subjected to the power of light when they  _ knew _ he was weak to it. And on top of all that, the object of his greatest, most wrathful regret was right in front of him. Ventus had to die, and for that, Vanitas needed the X-Blade.

“Oh, is that all?” Kairi had said when he finished explaining. 

“I didn’t mean to hurt Sora, I just wanted to borrow it. We’re on good terms, I didn’t—“

“—Think it was going to be this big of a deal?  _ Please _ tell me that’s what you were about to say” She started to laugh and Vanitas was a little taken aback. “You’re just as much of an idiot as he is,” she said then corrected, “as they  _ all _ are.” She meant of course, Sora and Roxas, and perhaps even Ventus.

“Hey,” he growled, “watch it.”

“Oh please, if you were going to hurt me, you would have hurt me.” Kairi was scared, but she’d spent too much time acting afraid, too much time  _ being _ afraid. She decided it was a waste of time. The worst part of her didn’t deserve the satisfaction of becoming an aspect of her personality. She called his bluff, and it turned out she was correct.

He folded his arms and walked away from her, scowling. “If I’m an idiot so are you,” he told her.

Some of the humor left her face. He couldn’t have known how right he was. It was his fault for flying off the hinges, but wouldn’t Roxas’ plan had worked? Everything had happened so fast— everyone was screaming, magic was flying around, and the top of the tower was gently drifting into space as the spell unraveled. 

She’d even felt that pulse of light, known in her heart the thing she should do was to hold him and let her Powers of Heart set him free— as she had countless times before. Why was this time so different? “You’re right,” she said ruefully, “I’m not even good at the thing I’m supposed to be good at.” She put her hands over her heart and stared at the ground.

Vanitas saw that he’d wounded her and his reflex of course was to pour salt on it. “You’ve got a heart of pure light, right? Way to use it back there.” He remembered her darting in front of them when they were fused together. The large, spiky, clawed amalgamation they formed moved like a ghost or a series of photos, skipping across the room so quickly if someone blinked, they’d miss them.

Then out of nowhere: Kairi. Kairi holding them. Kairi’s arms warming them with a light just as bright as the last, but not burning. Not a  _ punishing _ light. Being around her filled him with a drop of that feeling, which was the only reason he didn’t leave her to the Darksides.

At his comment, Kairi put her head in her hands. Vanitas stared down at her as she hyperventilated and cried without tears, still on the floor and in a pile of self-loathing. He could feel desperation and dread wafting off of her. 

“We have to go back,”She said, pulling it together and lifting her head.

“Why? We’re the cause of everyone’s problems.” He kicked a nearby rock, “Might be better if we were gone, don’t you think?

“N—“ she began, but hesitated before finishing the word, “no.... no, of course not.”

“Who are you trying to convince?” He turned and started to saunter off, the opposite direction. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” She shouted, getting to her feet. The idea of being alone in this place jolted her limbs into action. 

“Away,” he said.

Vanitas was a bad guy, but the devil you know is always better than the ones you don’t, and he didn’t seem keen on hurting her. “Wait,” she said begrudgingly, but he didn’t break his stride. “Wait!” She called again, and then finally, frightened, “ _ Wait! _ ”

He halted and over his shoulder in time to see a huge dark shape struggling to form behind Kairi. Kairi, who was holding her hand outstretched. The dark shape dwarfed her ten times over and yet she didn’t sense it looming over her. “Shouldn’t us fuck-ups stick together?”

Vanitas summoned his keyblade and ran toward her. The run turned into a sprint, turned to that anti-gravitational flash step he’s able to do, and in less than a full breat, he was at her side with Void Gear sticking into the maw of a great Heartless.

  
  
  


“How could you say all that?” Xion was admonishing Roxas. “Kairi’s our friend.”

“She’s  _ your _ friend. I never said we were friends,” Roxas said loudly, and as soon as he did, he felt extremely childish. He pivoted away from the subject of Kairi and how he probably fucked up in chasing her off. If he was being real Kairi was a liability to them anyway. There were bigger fish.

Xion could appreciate that. Kairi wasn’t really their friend either so they didn’t exhaust the subject. “We have to find Namine and Lea,” they said, gripping Roxas’ sleeve.

He nodded and the two of them summoned their keyblades. Roxas had a couple he’d like to switch in and out if he was being fancy. He had a few suited for stealth, a few to tank, and one that could stealth and provide decent magical cover fire. He was groomed to be an assassin within the organization, but Xion was lethal in a way that he wasn’t. They’d mastered use of the Kingdom Key, so much so that they didn’t even entertain using anything else. “Fear not he who has practiced a thousand different kicks,” Yen Sid had told them approvingly, “but he who has practiced a single kick, one thousand times.” 

Xion beamed and from then on, no one could clown them for using the kiddy keyblade. Together they made their way forward, spilling down a small dune of black and purple sand. The landscape was like a giant bruise. A sore, something infected and unkind that suffocated them when they tried to breathe it in. “That girl, that keyblade master,” Xion said, “The one with the blue hair. She was stuck in here for a decade, right?”

Roxas nodded and then shivered. He felt faint and nauseous from mere minutes. How she could have survived a full  _ decade  _ he’d never understand. “Her name is Aqua. And yea, she was here ten years before Riku and Sora and Mickey found her.” He was glad of the distraction to talk because he was going insane with worry. Lea wasn’t even supposed to be there. He’d texted him where he was and Lea had come on his own to surprise Roxas. It was hard for them to be apart now since they were apart for so, so long. Longer than the almost-year they’d grown close, in fact. First he was missing, then he was absorbed. Now they couldn’t get enough, had to see each other to confirm that they wouldn’t dissolve or fade again at a moment’s notice. It was his fault Lea was here.

He could tell Xion felt the same way about Namine. It was her magic that brought Sora to Traverse Town, but from there they could have headed back to Twilight Town— anywhere but with this group of young people— to whom tragedy is violently attracted like a lightning rod. She might have died here. Who was there to break her fall? Her empathic magic was no match for the living world of the Realm of Darkness. 

“They’re alive, right?” Xion asked, craving validation. They wouldn’t find it in Roxas, for he didn’t answer. His jaw set in a hard, serious line. “Roxas, tell me Namine’s alive. Tell me we can survive this place like Aqua did.”

“—Aqua?” A new voice said, a familiar one. A groggy one.

The pair of them gave a start and began wildly looking around. It took them a moment to realize that there was a crater nearby, a shield-shaped crater that held a motionless, mumbling body. “Aqua? Terra? Where are you?”

Roxas and Xion stood at the top of the slope and looked down at a semi-conscious boy shifting fitfully in the dunes. He looked exactly like Roxas, only with different clothes and battered in different places. The two friends exchanged a look, then came rushing down to meet him. Roxas knelt beside him and Xion bent low with their hand on his head. He felt warm, but a curaga later he was sitting bolt upright, sand flying everywhere. “Aqua? Terra?” He asked wildly.

“No,” Roxas said curtly.

“Unfortunately,” Xion added in an attempt to be polite.

Ventus looked at the both of them. His eyes tracked over Xion, taking in their short dark hair and their freckly skin, but he was far more interested in Roxas. How could he not be? It was hard not to be interested in a dude with  _ your exact _ face. Well, not exact. Ventus had bright emerald green eyes and Roxas had deep sea blue ones, like Sora’s. It was a comfort, at least, that they wouldn’t be able to pull a switcheroo entirely effortlessly. “Who are—“

“I’m Xion,” Xion said quickly, “And I’m sure you already know of Roxas.”

Ventus didn’t break eye contact with Roxas. He tilted his head and studied his face for a moment, his mouth agape. “Sorry, I don’t mean to be creepy,” he said, still staring, “...it’s just. Freaky, isn’t it? Do you want to play the mirror game?” He held his hands up and started rubbing them flat against an invisible wall.

Roxas did not reciprocate. “It is. Freaky,” he admitted. He was more of a casual basis with Aqua. He’d been keeping her and Namine in the loop with his Gummi phone. She had always been exceedingly kind to him, but when he was faced with Ventus he couldn’t help but feel her kindness had nothing to do with him and everything to do with this kid. He was like a ward to her, or a little brother. 

Ventus’ hands fell and he scratched the back of his head, getting to his feet. “Where are we?”

Xion and Roxas exchanged looks again. 

“Come on, I can handle it,” Ventus said, looking from one to the other with new determination. He didn’t even look around.

“The Realm of Darkness,” Xion said and braced their hand on Ven’s shoulder for the inevitable shift in demeanor.

Predictably, Ventus went from determined to mildly horrified. His face paled and he felt lightheaded. “What?”

“It’s true,” Roxas added, walking away from the both of them. He wandered in the direction of the strange glowing moon and the distant shadows in front of it. This whole place was built to be an ordeal. Even the sand made it difficult to keep putting one foot in front of the other. The desperation was palpable and felt like a thousand tiny needles in the skin, sinking deeper the longer they were here. Roxas held his arm and shivered. Xion moved to follow him and Ventus brought up the rear. “The fucking Realm of Darkness.”

“Listen, if we made it, the others probably did too, right? And if they all saw  _ that _ ,” they pointed vaguely at the sky, “I bet their first instincts would be to find a way to get to it. We just have to get down there, and then we’ll find the others. Right?” It was the only hope the three of them had to hold on to. It was possible that they were the only three to make it— well, them plus Kairi, although who could even guess her status right now.

Ventus responded almost at once with his hands on his hips and his chest puffed out. “Totally! Our friends are too strong to be taken out by one of Vanitas’ cheap tricks.” He said. He sounded like Sora. More like Sora than he himself did, Roxas thought, suddenly annoyed.

“Did you see what happened? Were you even there? They summoned the X-Blade together. That shouldn’t be possible anymore. That thing summoned the most juiced weapon to ever exist and sent us all right to hell.” Roxas glared at the shadow of the X-Blade still hanging innocently in the sky. “He’s probably luring us into a trap.”

“Who?” Xion asked.

“Xehanort,” Roxas answered. He didn’t even think about it, but once it was out of his mouth everything started to make sense. “Vanitas is one of Xehanort’s thralls, right? I bet he was here to infiltrate us, send us all here for some other reason. A back up to a back up plan.”

Xion shuddered. “The dude’s a mad metaphysicist, I wouldn’t put anything passed him anymore.” Ventus went from white to green at the mention of his name. He tried to appear mad, but all he appeared was sick.

“It can’t be him. Sora... he defeated him, he had to have. He’s.... caused so much damage.” Ventus wobbled dangerously as if he would fall and reflexively Roxas caught him under the armpit and held him up.

“That’s just a theory,” Xion cut in, “We don’t know. Could just be some fluke caused by Vanitas. This just means we have to be careful once we get to the beach,” Xion was saying as they took the lead. They cupped their hands around their mouth and said in a medium-loud call. “Namine! Lea!”

“Something might hear you,” Roxas hissed from behind them but they smirked over their shoulder. 

“Let a heartless try. I’ve been waiting to hit something for  _ soooo _ long, Roxy.”

“The faster we get to the beach, the sooner we rescue Sora,” he said, though a large part of him wanted to call out too, and could empathize with Xion’s bloodlust. 

A few more yards North and the whole thing didn’t even matter anymore. There was a line of swirling shadow heartless forming a pillar blocking the path ahead. Ventus leaned away from Roxas to stand on his own. He held his hand out before him dramatically and his blade appeared in a flourish of bright light. “We gotta keep moving. For our friends!” 

  
  


Riku fell noiselessly when the tower cascaded into darkness. He saw a sheet of pure white and spun towards it, thinking it was the light that shined in Kairi’s heart, but it turned out to be Namine’s pure white dress. It almost glowed in the darkness. She was screaming, impossible to miss, and so he grabbed her mid air and braced for a rough landing.

She continued to scream and between her wriggling and her flailing hair, he could barely control their landing. 

“Riku!” She cried. The grey landscape came whipping up to meet them and then— they were underwater. They broke the surface of the eerily still ocean in a cloud of bubbles and muted sound. Namine gasped, but Riku put his hand across her mouth. They sank, but then Riku took her by the hands and swam her back to what he hoped was the surface. He had no real compass here, it was clear and grey in every direction and the surface barely gleamed with any moonlight. Namine gasped and gulped down cool clear air, then began to choke. This place had a toxicity about it that she couldn’t readily describe. She struggled to stay afloat so Riku folded her into his arms. His parents would say these things about him: he learned how to fight before he learned how to talk, and he learned how to swim before he learned how to walk. Pulling her aside to a handhold was easy. It was finding a suitable handhold that was a little difficult. The water they were in was vast and punctuated only by gnarled and twisted rows of flowerless thorns. Some of them were small like they could have come from the stem of a rose, and others were bigger than their entire bodies. Riku swam to one of the huge ones and touched it experimentally. It wasn’t venomous or treacherous to the touch so he swung Namine around to grab hold of it too.

“Riku, what’s happening,” Namine wailed.

More screaming from above. Riku looked up to see two more bodies on their way down...right above the basket of thorns! He couldn’t make out who it was, but his gut reaction was to save them. “Hang on, Namine! I’ll be right back, just hold onto this and do not let go.”

“Riku, wait—“ but he was already gone, leaping up the wall of thorns and pushing himself off of a tight knit bramble toward the top. He straightened his body out and held up his hands. His keyblade appeared and he shot a rectangular shield up into the air at a tilt so the two bodies tumbled onto it and rolled down into the water below. His plan  _ sorta _ worked. One of the people did exactly as he expected, but the other grappled with a corner of the shield charm and held on for dear life. 

“Fall!” Riku screamed, but it was too late. The shield disappeared and the body dropped headlong into the thorny alcove below. Riku surrounded himself with a shield and then with fire. The shield was enough to protect him from the falling branches, but the air was too thick with dead wood he could hardly see where he was going. “I’m coming!” He yelled, “I’m coming, I won’t leave you!”

Whoever it was.

Mickey didn’t tell Riku and Sora that Aqua had been stuck in the Realm of Darkness because he knew the both of them would plot separately to go in and save her. It was against their very nature to leave anyone behind. Plus, it might have been Kairi. There was a lump in his throat. He prayed it was Kairi. No one’s face would make him happier than hers, especially after what they’d just seen. Sora had been possessed, and then he’d exploded into pure darkness. Was any of that real?

The only other person that would have made his heart cave in from relief was Sora. And there he was, sitting on a bed of black thorns with a few new bumps and bruises. Blood oozed out of him and stained the grey ocean below pink. Riku slid down a thorny vine like a rail, fighting to get to him even though he was pretty sure this was some sort of mirage.

“Riku!” A voice cried from behind him, Namine’s voice.

“Riku!” A male voice called as well, but he couldn’t care about that.

He fought his way forward and pulled Sora’s mangled body away from the worst of the thorns. “Hey,” he said gently, his arms glowing green with healing magic. “Hey, hey, none of that now.”

“...auughhhnn,” he groaned, and Riku’s heart leapt. He was real alright, but how was he here? Did all that dark power rush out of him somehow?

Riku had a billion questions but he was utterly speechless with Sora in his arms. Strings of green twined their way up and down his chest, through his hair, sprouting leaves across his chest. When the magic ebbed away Sora’s eyes opened. He gasped and blinked up at Riku.

“Riku...” he groaned and then he started to wheeze. Riku was hugging him, pressing him to his chest so hard he could barely breathe. Sora was weak but laughing and tapping on his arms as if to say uncle. When he set him back down Sora looked up dreamily at Riku, wreathed by dark thorns and a pale grey sky. His eyes were the brightest things he could see, teal like seafoam and shining with tears. 

“Come on, man. Be cool.”

Riku’s grip loosened, but he held him for a while before he sniffled and repositioned him on his back. 

“Hey what are you—“

“Hang on,” he said, and he grabbed Sora’s waist just in case. Without further preamble he dashed forward through a dense wall of bramble. In four quick bursts they were out of the dangerous thicket and back over open ocean. Gravity took over. They tumbled into the water and swam to the surface, blinking and spitting. 

“You call this a rescue?”

“Oh my gosh! Is that Sora? Oh thank Merlin you’re alright,” Namine screamed, still clinging to the thorn Riku had left her on. Beside her was Lea treading water.

“Yea yea, we’re all stoked you’re okay,” Lea said, looking irritated, “but you’ve got some serious explaining to do. What the god damned hell is going on around here? Where  _ are _ we?”

For the first time since they all landed, they each got a good look around. Riku squinted and in the distance, he thought he saw a beach. “I don’t know,” he said, “But it feels familiar. And dangerous.”

“What are we going to do?” Lea asked.

“I can’t swim,” Namine added. 

Sora looked to the thorns and had an idea. “We could slide on the vines and go that way. I think I see land that way,” he said, pointing in the direction Riku is facing, “ _ Carefully _ . These shrubs mean business.” He hauled himself out of the water and stood on a meaty vine, then scrambled along it until he was at the top of the wall. 

Riku was right behind him, astonished that he was even okay. It hadn’t quite worn off. “How did you—“

“I don’t know.”

“What did Vanitas—“

“I have no idea, Riku,” Sora said, turning. Riku almost ran into him. Instead they locked eyes. “I don’t know. He. He didn’t even do it because of me. He just wanted...”

“The X-blade,” Namine said as Lea helped her up. Sora was holding her hands and Riku pointed to a branch that would support her if she stood.

“Yea,” Sora answered, putting his face in his hands. “I didn’t even want to use it. I never wanted his power. I did my best to avoid—“

“No, Sora, the X-blade. It’s...” She was pointing skyward. They all stared at the fogged up moon with the shadow of the demonic husk a fused Sora and Vanitas created. Van had possessed him once, And was a fool for thinking he’d change that quickly, but his heart sank when he saw it. His first thought was it was Vanitas, but he saw the limbs were much too long to be his. In front of the body hovered the X-blade, ominous and luminous in the starless night sky. 

Sora was shocked to see it there and even rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t just imagining it. “But... how can that be?”

They made it to the shore with extreme caution. Namine had to be carried the last quarter of the journey and all of them bore marks, but no one was critical, and nothing had attacked them. Lea was panting and Namine had taken a seat on the beach to watch the threatening moon and its totems all the way to the West of them

“We should take a break,” Namine said putting a hand on Lea’s shoulder. “Not too long. I’ll come and get you two when we’re ready to leave.”

“Say what?” Lea said, but Namine sat beside him and elbowed him hard in the side. “Oh sure. Yea, whatever she just said.”

Sora looked perplexed, but Namine wasn’t looking at him. He followed her gaze to Riku, who was was lurking behind him looking incredibly anxious. “We should keep going,” Sora insisted.

“Actually, I just. Need a minute, Sora,” Riku said, and Sora tilted his head. When he started to walk away Sora followed automatically. Riku kept walking so that he was a little ahead of him. It went on this way until Sora skipped ahead and grasped Riku’s arm with his. “We’re in the Realm of Darkness,” Sora said.

“I know,” Riku told him, “As soon as we started coming up on the beach, I knew.”

“Where are we going? We really shouldn’t separate.”

“Just wanted to get far enough that so that Lea wouldn’t—,” he said and stopped walking. He looked over his shoulder as if to make certain the other two weren’t within earshot, then extracted his arm from Soras and started to blush. “Listen, back there, I was hoping... you were Kairi.”

Sora tilted his head and frowned a little bit. He could understand that. He was anxious to see her too. His heart ached even thinking about her in a hellscape like this. Alone and terrified. They’d find her— they always did. “We’ll find her,” he tried to say, but Riku just kept talking.

“But it was you and... and I... Fuck, why is this so hard.” He kicked up a little bit of sand and stuffed both hands into his pockets. “ _ I’m _ not connected to you. I was so relieved to see you and you’re a part of my heart, but our most significant... what did Xion call it? The magic that bonds you guys together?”

“A heartstring, I think?”

“Right— our only one of those is from that mental breakdown I had a few years ago when Maleficent convinced me to kill you. You snapped me out of it, you saved me and you spent years searching for me. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t make you wake up without Xion and Roxas and Ansem. They all have ties to your heart— them and Kairi, and Roxas, and Ven and I just.... I mean, you’re not connected to  _ me _ .”

Sora was frowning.

The fairies, while weaving heroic wardrobes, allowed access to a pocket dimension to each of their wards via their, well... pockets. They could carry an obscene amount of items no matter the size or perishability, and none of them really ever came close to hitting their maximum storage limit. Riku withdrew a hand from his pocket, roughly tugging out a paopu fruit. “Kairi was supposed to be here,” he mumbled. “Kairi was supposed to ask you for me. She promised she would because.. I mean.... She said I was nervous but I am  _ not _ nervous,” Riku stammered nervously.

Sora looked down at the paopu fruit and then back up at Riku, his ears turning pink. 

“I know you shared one with her,” Riku went on. He took a deep breath and finished, “So did I.”

Sora’s expression shifted from sheepishness to mild shock, just like Riku’s did when Kairi had told him the same news. “Riku...”

“She said that you and me, we’re the only ones left. We have to share one so that... I mean, if we die here, I want to be connected. And if we manage to bust out of here and live our happily ever afters again, I want to be connected. I... I want to be a part of that. So,” he huffed, “I want you to share a paopu with me.”

There was a very present pause. Sora didn’t say anything for such a long time, Riku lowered the star shaped fruit and started to feel embarrassment creep into his chest. Sora grabbed his hands, never breaking eye contact. These weren’t the conditions under which he would have loved to share a paopu with Riku, but he was right. Not every moment was promised, and you have to tell the people you love that you love them while you’re all still around.

Sora took two of the jutting shapes in his hands and together they broke it apart. It was juicy inside and both of them hurried to take a bite. It was an ample fruit with the texture of a mango and the skin of a peach, only huge and with tiny seeds that you could swallow. It left their hands a mess. Sora dragged the back of his hand over his mouth and giggled.

Riku’s eyes flicked to his mouth, and then back to his eyes. He’d seen, and Riku had seen that he’d seen, but just then Namine’s scream cut through the air.

They looked at each other and then ran back up the beach together to where they’d left their friends.

When they got back to her, they found her pointing to the hanging figure in the sky. It was lowering and holding the X-Blade aloft. It sunk beneath their line of vision just beyond some overgrowth and a few jagged sand dunes. “Come on,” Riku said determinedly. He already felt 100% like himself by Sora’s side. This was what it was meant to be... all those years ago.  _ This _ was what he really wanted, he was just too stupid and prideful to admit it.

Sora darted ahead like a beacon, leading the way for the three of them. The realm was doing its best to suffocate these hero’s spirits, but Riku felt pride swell in his chest as he watched him. He might not be connected via weird mind meld thing or real magic, but their connection felt more solid than ever now. Sora looked over his shoulder at him and his heart skipped a beat.

He smiled, stronger with him by his side. All of their friends were here, there was no time to be defeated or distracted. They needed to correct this now, or they would be lost to the Realm of Darkness forever! Or for however long King Mickey chose to leave them there.

  
  


They converged on the beach with more familiar faces. Sora, Lea, Riku, and Namine coming from the beach, soaking wet and covered in sand and thorns, stumbled upon a clearing where a tousled looking Aqua and Terra sat side by side. At the sudden arrival of company they stood up quickly and started to adjust themselves.

“Holy shit,” Sora sighed, whistling with relief. “Good gravy, I’m glad you guys are okay.”

Lea raised his eyebrows but said nothing, his hands on his hips. Riku opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, two more bodies came spinning off of a nearby sandune taller than eye level. Roxas and Ventus were flung into the sky and landed with a heavy, wet slap on sand. 

“Oh fuck,” Roxas said.

“This guy sure is tough,” Ventus agreed.

Xion cartwheeled in out of nowhere, slicing the underbelly of an enormous and poisonous heartless. They collapsed in a heap at Sora’s feet and he bent immediately to catch them. The heartless shrieked and shredded into strips of dissolving darkness behind them, its enormous heart twisting into the sky. “It was driving us here,” Xion said frantically, “this is a trap.”

“What? Who?”

Sora didn’t understand. Terra was running toward them with Ventus by his side and Roxas in tow. “A trap, Sora—  _ Sora?! _ ”

Aqua looked around. They truly weren’t alone. This was nothing like the last time. She was stuck for years;  _ forgotten _ an entire decade. She had enough wrath in her from it to power a small city, and yet her skin didn’t burst into flames upon landing and she was surrounded by friends and allies. Maybe together they could figure this out.

It was Roxas who popped the bubble. “Glad you’re okay, but serious inquiry: if you’re here, who’s in that thing?” Roxas said grabbing Sora’s shoulders and pointing up ahead. There was an archway of black trees and bare thorny bushes, beyond which the pillar of darkness stood. Its eyes were slits of white, marching toward them. 

“Not it,” Xion groaned holding their head.

“Alright, y’all,” Sora said, putting up his fists, “let’s boogie.”

Everyone summoned their keyblades, but no one moved just yet. Except Roxas who walked up to Sora and offered him either OathKeeper or Oblivion to handle in the upcoming battle. Sora picked Oblivion because he knew Oathkeaper was kind of Roxas’ jam.

The creature closed in on them, the heroes stiffened and held their weapons aloft. Sora moved out in front and Riku cautiously followed. The creature was no longer a swirling battle of light and darkness incarnate, but a smooth and bleak grey. Its features were hidden in shadow except for the whites of its eyes and sharp teeth. 

“My my,” the amalgamation said. Its voice was a tangled up multitude of other voices— perhaps two or three if Sora had to guess. He heard his voice and Vanitas’ voice emanating from it; and another voice, a man’s voice. “Take a look at the menagerie. All this and We got the X-Blade afterall.”

“Send us back!” Sora demanded, “Quit grandstanding!”

“You think I put you here?” The creature held its arms aloft and looked around. It began to float seamlessly into the air. Everyone tensed. “You put you here,  _ child. _ ” 

A chill ran up Sora’s back, and Terra’s. In the bouquet of voices they were the only ones to clearly hear the contempt in the man’s voice; the dismissiveness in his chide. The two of them burst from the group and ran forward, weapons drawn.

The creature disappeared when the two of them got close. Sora and Terra skidded to a halt and drew tightly together, back-to-back where it had stood. 

The amalgamation reappeared in the midst of everyone else, laughing loudly, raucously even. Vanitas’ voice was the loudest. “Boo!” A wave of dark energy blew them all apart. Everyone in range went flying. 

Terra refused to be this powerless. He was too many people’s puppets for too long, he refused to fail protecting Aqua and Ven again. His will and the power stored in his newfound body radiated out of his keyblade. His moves were slow but they were heavy. He dashed to the creature and brought the hammer down. Sora put his forearms up to guard his face in the split second before sand and people started flying.

Xion used their body as a human landing pad for Namine as they tumbled together near the sea. Aqua was collapsing against a rock formation and Lea wasn’t moving. One blast had done this. The dust had begun to settle and Terra, stilled during his follow-through, was faced with the grinning, many-voiced creature holding the flat of his blade in its hand as easily as if it were a sparring staff. “It’s always fight, fight, fight with you guys. Light and darkness. Isn’t it all just getting old?” The amalgamation said. It threw Terra’s keyblade and Terra along with it. There was a whoosh of wind and he was blasted yards away.

Roxas stood and Sora caught his eye. Together they rushed the enemy on two sides, but the silver golem seemed ten steps ahead. It slipped out of the way at just the right angle to miss Sora’s blade and catch Roxas’ throat at the same time. “You won’t even listen to my monologue? You’re hurting my feelings.” It said darkly and then it disappeared again.

The giant figure reappeared before Terra. “Let me have some of your light,” it said, and the feeling of recognition intensified in his mind. Wasn’t that Xehanort’s voice? “It’s for the experiment.” Without further adieu the creature reached into Terra’s chest.

“ _ No! _ ” Aqua screamed and ran for him but was too late. Terra writhed and groaned beneath the creatures sharp fingers. Roxas and Sora were running too, but when the creature pulled back its hand it began to laugh again.

The three of them closed in and it disappeared again. Aqua fell to Terra’s side, cradled his head, and tried to gently slap him awake, tears welling in her eyes. Sora knelt and Roxas backed toward them with his keyblade still aloft. 

The creature danced away from them. “Intentions are powerful things. Have any of you stopped to consider that?” Maybe Roxas was imagining it but there seemed to be more voices inside it now. “Have any of you even stopped to contemplate the balance?” It lunged for Roxas, but he was ready. He parried and flexed forward, spinning out into a new attack. On the second move the creature palmed his chest and he froze, falling to his knees.

Sora scrambled wildly to his feet, but as soon as Roxas hit the ground, both of their keyblades disappeared. “And then there’s you. I guess this is mine now, huh?” The creature giggled, and the X-Blade materialised in the air amidst pink and blue lightning. It loomed before Sora intimidatingly, but a second later it touched the ground again. Someone had leapt up from behind to strike, the image of the X-Blade wavered.

“Roxas!” Riku shouted, “light portal, 11 o’clock!”

Roxas was still dizzy from an unknown and powerful burst of wild magic. He couldn’t have been sure the voice calling for him was even real— amidst the explosions and the cries of pain he couldn’t differentiate much. But he held his hand out and thought:  _ portal _ .

A curtain of light appeared more around Riku’s 1 o’clock than 11, but he adjusted his stance and slashed again. “Get lost!” he snarled.

The creature couldn’t stop its howling, unsettling laughter. “Riku... wait ‘til you find out,” it teased, letting the boy dance it backward. The amalgamation weaved away from Riku’s keyblade, but never broke eye contact. It was playing a  _ game _ with him. Just before they reached Roxas’ portal of light, the creature jumped forward and reached through Riku’s chest as well. “Ask Roxas where Kairi is,” the creature whispered to him as his body went slack in its dark, paralytic grip. He couldn’t move anything but his eyes, which darted every which way as he fell, first to kneel and then to a heap on the ground. He saw Sora running toward him, felt energy move behind him “In a while, crocodile,” the amalgamation said, and it definitely sounded louder now. The bouquet of voices was almost a cacophony. It laughed and then Sora came charging out of nowhere and headbutted it. The stop in laughter was abrupt and the creature tumbled behind the curtain of light. Then it was gone.

Sora skidded to a halt at Riku’s side and collected him in his arms. He looked around frantically to make certain the danger had really passed before starting to fret properly. “Riku, you’re—“

“I’m fine,” he said, “I just... can’t move.” 

Sora wept over him, hiccuping out of fright and anxiety. Terra was already sitting up and Roxas was conscious and breathing, even if he was still lying still on the ground. Namine, Lea, and Xion had found him. “Are you okay?” Sora asked him, his voice in his ear. Riku shivered, remembering the fresh hell the creature had put into his head. 

“That thing, it... It touched me, it saw into my heart.”

“You’re okay now, I’ve got you.”

“We have to find Kairi.” The thought was enough to let him sit up. His limbs felt like syrup or lumps of warm clay, he leaned against Sora’s chest and put a hand on his shoulder. Sora helped him to his feet touching his arms and searching his face. “We have to find Kairi,” he said again.

“We will. We always—“

“—Roxas,” Riku called out suddenly. Roxas looked over at him his hand on his head, still surrounded by his friends. “Have you seen Kairi?”

Sora looked a little shocked, but followed his gaze to Roxas anyway, his eyebrows raised in question. “We all got here together, maybe she hasn’t—“

“I want  _ him _ to answer,” Riku said, striding over. 

Roxas looked him in the eye for a moment but then looked away. He caught Xion’s eye and they winced. Roxas pursed his lips. “I didn’t see her,” he said. Xion’s eyes flashed but they said nothing. Sora furrowed his brow. He’s never seen Roxas lie before, but he had to imagine he’d know what it looked like when he did. He tilted his head and him and Roxas made eye contact. He looked down quickly and then shook his head. “I mean I did, but—“

“You saw her, then?” Riku said loudly. The creature was right— Riku began to get worried, “Where did she go? Where is she?”

“I didn’t... I mean I didn’t follow her, she just took off—“

“You saw her and you didn’t talk to her?” Sora said, not understanding.

“We talked,” Xion pitched in, “Emotions were just a little heightened when we—“

“You saw her too?” Namine unraveled herself from Xion’s side, furrowing her brow and frowning. “You both saw Kairi?” Now it was Xion’s turn to look guilty. 

“We did. We just— she— and I was just so mad and confused, I mean, we’d just landed in the  _ Realm of Darkness _ for crying out loud,” Roxas turned to Sora, his hands outstretched. “Listen, Sora, we can find her—“

“Where is she?” Riku asked again, and Roxas pointed to the dark horizon, away from the beaches.

“She ran that way. But Sora, I swear, I—“

“Let’s go,” Sora said coldly to Riku, walking right passed Roxas and into the direction he pointed. Roxas bit his lip when he passed and started to follow then but Sora stopped and caught his eye. “Maybe you should hang out here with everyone. Riku and I can look for her.”

Roxas looked shocked, like he just had a door slammed in his face. Ice flooded his lungs and sent tingles down his spine. Sensing this, Xion slid their hand into his. He squeezed it as he watched Riku and Sora began to walk away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ensembles are so fun to write, but I feel like they can also be mad confusing. Did you get lost at all?


	7. We are not only what has been done to us

Kairi looked up into the gaping jaw of a new, massive creature. She saw its wet teeth glimmer in the moonlight, felt its breath as it exhaled. She saw Vanitas standing beside her with Void Gear keeping that menacing mouth from snapping shut around them, its prey. 

Vanitas’ eyes were wide. “Run,” he told her, and the fear in his voice made her jolt into action. She didn’t know he was capable of fear. If there was ever a time to be afraid, it was now. They’d stayed in one place for too long and the heartless nearly had them surrounded.

Kairi looked behind her as she ran, watching in horror while the boy fended off the heartless, even bigger than its predecessor. What would have happened to her if he didn’t look back? If he just left that would have been the end of her. What happens when you die in the Realm of Darkness? She was sure she didn’t want to find out.

Adrenaline coursed through her. More enemies bloomed, peeling from the walls and falling from the sky. Her vision was blurred with tears and for a horrible moment she thought that this was what was owed to her for all the times she’d put her best friends in danger. Her home planet was destroyed in search for  _ her _ and her heart of pure light. She was lost to the darkness when Destiny Island was obliterated and spent most of last year getting captured by different villains. She died in the Keyblade Graveyard at Master Xehanort’s hand and the best person she knew had sacrificed himself to bring her back. Maybe Vanitas was right. Maybe the rest of them were better off without people who just made things worse.

She screamed and shielded herself with her forearms, bracing herself for the crash and the feeling of heat and pain. Instead she was hoisted into the air. She opened her eyes to find herself in complete and total darkness. She opened her mouth but closed it again, quickly realizing this phenomenon was like being submerged underwater. She held her neck, clapped her hand over her mouth, then began to thrash. No matter what she did, the darkness persisted. She began to feel dizzy and weak. She cried out, muffled against the darkness as it invaded her throat and lungs. She began to cry.

No voices came to her in the darkness, only a bleak kind of serenity. A final burst. Acceptance, perhaps, and then her tears slowed and she started to shiver. She waited patiently for death to envelop her. It was faster in the graveyard. She hadn’t even seen it coming. One minute she was floating over a deep ravine watching Riku and Sora down below— then, a shockingly painful white light later she was gone. This darkness killed slowly, seeping into her skin and worming its way into her heart. The darkness had reached her Heart of Pure Light and bled into it.

In her mind’s eye, Kairi remembered the looks on Sora and Riku’s faces as they watched.... watched Xehanort obliterate her. Right up to the second she vanished, she saw the twin looks of grief and incredulity on their faces. Kairi thought about Namine and how fiercely she’d hugged her when she came back. She thought about Lea, who was the first along with Riku to greet her. 

The darkness pulsed.

She thought of Aqua, whom she’d always wanted as a mentor but now would never get the chance to ask.

The darkness fluctuated again, fracturing under the weight of her positivity. 

She thought of everyone else— there were whole worlds of people out there she could go to, and the united and healed worlds of the friends she’d made in Twilight town. The darkness fled, but that little piece that had cut into her heart was still there. She felt it as the heartless exploded around her and she floated to the ground clutching her chest. She looked at her hand to find that it was glowing. Her skin had turned pale and translucent, swirling, grey shapes bloomed from the tips of her fingers. She summoned her keyblade and whipped around, suddenly remembering—

“Vanitas!” She pointed her keyblade at a rampaging heartless rattling toward her. It looked like a cross between a centipede and a series of train cars. A blue beam blew it apart and from within, the form of Vanitas collapsed to the ground. He’d been swallowed too, but he hadn’t escaped.

The heartless was picking itself up and putting itself back together, shambling closer to Kairi now that it faced opposition once again. She turned her keyblade to the side and started to run. Every step forward was tough, like wading through syrup while her legs were on fire. But as she ran, she found it easier and easier to hurtle one foot in front of the other. “Raah!” She screamed, carving one of the heartless’ many legs clean off as it came whipping down to meet her. The heartless screeched and stars erupted out of it. While it was distracted, Kairi slid for Vanitas.

“Hey, hey, come on,” she said, shaking his shoulders. He lay face down in the sand and panic shot up her back. She faced the heartless again just in time to see it coming for her. A half dozen more pooled in every corner of her vision. How was she going to do this alone? Kairi shook her head, banishing the negativity. “One at a time,” she decided, and marched forward.

The learning curve was sharp and steep for a keyblader. Even Ventus who, for all accounts was considered an ameteur, could take down a monster or two on his own. Her first battles were against Xehanort’s sea of heartless, unversed, and nobodies in the keyblade graveyard. Captain Hook was less terrifying. Hell, these heartless were less terrifying. She got knocked down by the flailing claw of a Dark Inferno and got back up. She got set on fire by a gang of Red Nocturnes and survived. She blocked an incoming attack and lived.

Just when she thought she actually had a shot at winning the day, the heartless began to swirl together. A massive Pureblood emerged from within the growing nest of darkness. It was nothing more than a long, flowing cloak draped around a massive heart, wreathed in black thorns. Kairi ran up to it, drawing it away from Vanitas’ body “Come and get me!” She shouted through a mouthful of blood, “Come and try, coyote ugly! Come on!”

The heartless swiveled slowly and the air moved with it. The sanded pedestal they stood on spinned. Sand spilled from the sides and twirled into the great abyss. Vanitas began to roll. Kairi threw her keyblade as hard as she could at the flaming heart right in the center, but missed as it kept turning. Her blade reappeared in her hand and she pointed it at Vanitas. “Stop!” But nothing happened.

“Stop!” She cried again, but it was no use. She sprinted to him just before he careened off the side and caught him, falling by his side and holding him steady. Not a moment too soon, for the humongous Pureblood began to spin faster and faster. Its arms were in the air and a screech floated from the pitch black hood.

Sand was flying everywhere and it was getting harder to stay still. She dragged Vanitas with her as she tried to move, but the two of them combined were just too heavy. “ _ Stop! _ ” She screamed, pointing her blade at the heartless.

The white outline of a clock appeared and then enlarged to encompass the Pureblood. It froze, and as it did so did every twisting particle of sand around them. Kairi lifted her head to gape at the spectacle.  _ Magic.  _ She’d just done magic! On  _ purpose _ ! 

Somehow it was different from her Princess Powers or her summoning and dismissing her keyblade. Those were innate, and her Princess crap was almost even accidental. But this? 

She looked down at Vanitas who looked green and was mumbling something. He looked sickly and a string of spit tracked down the corner of his mouth, cheek, and neck. The heartless was beginning to move just barely. It flexed its long fingers trying to break free from the stopra. “You’re done,” She whispered to herself passionately. “Back off.” Things she heard Sora say when he swung his keyblade. “It’s over. You’re  _ done _ !”

She stood up and trotted to the center of the arena, the eye of the storm. “You’re not so tough,” she shouted, holding her weapon aloft. The beast groaned with the effort of swiveling to meet her. The creature was slow and it was a long run to meet it head on. They converged, Kairi blasting its underbelly with pure, unfettered magic. It came from her will! She didn’t scream anything this time and therefore had no clue what the bursts of light emanating from her was doing to it.

It came alive at its full speed and howled to the sky. The vines covering the enormous heart in its ribcage started to slacken and die. It finally floated free from the hood and it fell dramatically to the ground. It oozed into a dark shape and then sizzled away as if burned out of existence by the sun. The heart— the hearts of all of those heartless combined— twirled gracefully in the air, then winked, and was gone. Kairi dropped her keyblade which disappeared before it hit the ground. She nearly toppled when the adrenaline had drained out of her, but she remembered Vanitas and scrambled back to his side.

“Vanitas,” she pleaded slapping his cheeks. 

“Aq-qua...” he stammered. Kairi summoned what was left of her strength and tried to get to her feet with him draped clumsily across her shoulders. Thank Merlin he was as skinny and small as Sora— any bigger and it would have been a much more humiliating ordeal. His feet dragged in the sand as she hauled him away from the dark tunnel and the billowing sand, but to the blank horizon and the disembodied patches of ground forming a pathway elsewhere.

She walked until she was reasonably certain they were safe. She tried not to look down when hopping from path to path— it was a long way down if she fell or accidentally lost her grip on Van. But she could do this.  _ You can do anything, Kairi,  _ Sora would say, if he were here. She heard it in her head as clearly as if he were standing right next to her.  _ Please stay safe,  _ Riku would say,  _ and stay the hell away from this fucking creep _ .

But Vanitas wasn’t a fucking creep. He wasn’t so bad when he wasn’t possessing people and blowing up realms.

She lay him flat on his back and sank beside him, hugging her knees to her chest. She didn’t realize how battered and bruised she was until she looked down. She touched her chin to find that the blood on and (barf)  _ in _ her mouth had hardened in a sickly sort of way. She raised her hands to study the burns on her fingers.

“I can help with that,” Vanitas said weakly beside her. He had the strength to raise his hand and grasp Kairi’s. She yelped in pain, but a second later a string of glowing green light twisted around her wrist and healed her completely.

“You’re awake,” Kairi said gratefully, lowering that hand to Vanitas’ forehead. He was definitely ill. “Heal yourself.”

He tried, feebly. It really was a mark of how sick he was that he didn’t even have a snappy comeback to a command given to him. The green light and leaves surrounded him and vanished, but he remained unchanged. If anything, he looked drearier. 

“What’s happening? Why didn’t it work?”

Vanitas caught her gaze. “Why didn’t you leave me back there?”

Kairi recognized this answering a question with another question tactic as avoidance. “Because you look just like this guy I’m in love with,” she told him bluntly, “and he seems to think you’re not all bad. Why isn’t your magic working?”

He considered her through narrowed eyes and said, “Your hair is different than it was before.”

“Yea, cut it, thanks for noticing.”

“No, I mean.. your bangs, they’re.. white.”

“What? No they’re not,” she said, going cross eyed to look at her forehead. She couldn’t see the bangs, but she did check a tuft of her frame. Kairi gasped. Vanitas was telling the truth. “What the hell?”

“The  _ hell _ is right. This place is getting to you,” Vanitas said breathlessly and started to wheeze.

Kairi sat upright, her hands hovering over him frantically. “Vanitas? What’s wrong with you?” She asked. There was a long, low groan that echoed all around them. It was as if the Realm itself was stretching out, reaching for them. “We can’t stay here,” she said anxiously, “They’ll regenerate, and I-- I can’t--” By some fluke of nature she was able to fend for herself, but she’d rather not be thrust into that dire situation twice. She gritted her teeth. “We have to go.”

She pulled Vanitas’ limp arm around her shoulders and heaved him to his feet. He struggled and leaned against her, fighting but also wobbling to stand. “Kairi--”

“Not leaving you. Sora wouldn’t and neither will I, so just shut your mouth and try to walk.”

  
  
  


“Where are they going? Aqua said, gesturing to Sora and Riku’s retreating backs as Lea, Roxas, Xion, and Namine approached the wayfinders. They were still huddled together in the spot the amalgamation had left Terra prone.

“Looking for Kairi, if I’m following the drama right,” Lea replied. Roxas winced but didn’t offer any follow up.

“That thing is just... gone?” Terra asked, getting to his feet now that the others were starting to surround them. “It was kicking our asses, what happened? Why’s it just gone?”

Ventus let out a whistle. “Dunno but I’m grateful.” 

“We should be careful,” Aqua corrected him, putting a hand over Terra’s chest. There was no mark, no scar from when the creature touched him. She supposed she should feel grateful for that, too, but she was having a hard time feeling anything but worried. “And we should all really stay together.”

“Sora and Roxas are fighting,” Lea said, and Roxas punched him in the arm. Lea clutched it dramatically. “Or they aren’t, what do I know?”

“No, no,” Roxas said quickly, “I think we are. That was just a reflex.” He gave a frustrated sigh. “I didn’t even do anything. I  _ barely _ did anything. I yelled. I’m known for yelling, she should be tougher than that.” 

Aqua didn’t know what he was talking about, really. “We have to stay close to the others,” Aqua pressed, getting them all to start moving

Namine hit Roxas’ arm as hard as she could, but that wasn’t very hard. He simply looked at her and she made a face at him before giving his cheek a rough pat. “You’re a stupid-head. Just shut up before you make it worse.” She had a complicated relationship with Kairi, just as complicated as Sora and Roxas’. They were sisters and Namine missed her tremendously when she was gone. When she had been brought back she immediately sensed that Kairi was coming back from the world beyond. They faded into existence almost at the same time-- Namine in a cool white room surrounded by light and Riku and Ienzo, and Kairi falling from the sky and into the Destiny Islands. She remembered hugging Kairi the moment she saw her on that paopu tree— and could understand Sora’s anger. What she couldn’t wrap her head around was Roxas’ attitude.

He at least had the good grace to look ashamed of himself. “Let’s tail them,” he suggested.

“If they wanted to go it alone, maybe we should let them,” Xion countered.

“No, Roxas is right,” Aqua chimed in again, “We should follow them. Maybe at a distance. We don’t know where that creature has gone and it could come back at any time.”

“We need to find a way out of here...” Roxas had a new idea then. It was via his portal magic that the amalgamation disappeared. Experimentally he reached up. A curtain of light manifested beneath his fingertips. He pulled it aside and peered in to see more bleak darkness beyond coupled with the unmistakable gloom of the Realm. He let the curtain fall, concentrated, and then tried again. The same thing happened. “These... light portals, they can only travel within the world we’re on,” Roxas deduced out loud. “Can anyone still make corridors of darkness?” They all knew for a fact those could facilitate extra-world travel, but everyone exchanged blank expressions. 

“Can’t,” Lea said when Roxas looked at him. “Ever since Yen Sid bestowed all over me my powers over darkness have gone kaput.”

“Me either,” Xion returned, curiously looking through the curtain still flowing before Roxas. Namine inspected it too.

“Cool. Well hallways of light—I’m coining that, it’s officially coined— can’t world jump like corridors of darkness can,” he said, throwing his hands up.

“Yet another instance of darkness having an advantage over the light,” Terra said. 

“Terra, how could you say that?” Ventus put his hand on Terra’s massive shoulder and implored him look him dead in the eyes. “We’ll find our friends,” he turned to the rest of the group, “And we’ll find our way out of here. This  _ place _ is darkness, but we aren’t.”

Roxas wrinkled his nose. Ventus’ optimism was starting to get on his nerves. He, Lea, and Xion exchanged sidelong glances, but Namine, Aqua, and Terra looked more determined.

“Let’s move,” Aqua said firmly, and started up the path the way that Sora and Riku had gone.

Roxas moved with the others, but he was still experimenting with the hallways. More to give himself something to do than that he was truly curious. He caught Namine’s gaze and couldn’t hold it. Shame coiled in his stomach but he suppressed it. He was good at suppressing his emotions. When he was a nobody people were constantly telling him that he could feel nothing, when in fact he felt entirely too much. He got good at burying his crap. There were two people on heaven and earth that could get him to (barf) talk about his feelings.

One of them was following him.

Lea materialized on the other side of the curtain the next time he pushed through. Roxas gave a start, but truthfully he wasn’t all that surprised to see him there. He could probably sense the anguish coming off of him in waves. Predictably, he asked, “Hey, are you okay?”

“Let’s change the subject,” Roxas suggested pointedly, passing through another curtain. Lea followed him out of that one too.

“Fine. But we’re getting kind of far away from the others.”

“So run back,” Roxas snapped. Lea gave him a withering look. Softer, he asked, “Are you mad at me?”

“You’re like Jekyll and Hyde.” He said shaking his head before addressing Roxas’ question. “Why would I be mad at you?”

“Because it’s my fault you’re here.”

Lea thought about that for a moment, then barked with laughter. “You’re right. I guess I am mad at you.”

“Be serious,” Roxas said, chuckling too. He felt bad, laughing while Kairi may or may not be in mortal peril. But they were  _ all _ in mortal peril  _ all the time _ . He felt he deserved a break, and he was prepared to tell Sora so as soon as he got the speech straight in his head.

Lea’s next question was like a punch to the chest. “So what  _ did _ you say to her? Kairi?” 

He was reluctant to even answer. He felt petulant, like a child who had scribbled on the walls in permanent marker. He was caught, the jig was up and yet no one seemed to be able to do anything about it. They all just had to move forward with the knowledge that he’d fucked up. “I barely said anything.”

“Really?” Lea repeated, “I mean... no offense but you can get a little bitchy and defensive.”

“You know what? Whatever, I don’t need this,” Roxas snapped and he started to turn. Lea rolled his eyes, grabbed Roxas’ arm, and hauled him back. Lea grabbed a fistful of Roxas’ collar and snarled down at him. He was equal parts frightened and turned on.

“Bitchy,” Lea said, “And defensive. Case in point.” He let go, but Roxas didn’t step back or move away. 

After a pregnant pause Roxas exhaled and said, “I told her that she fucked us by getting in the way. I... basically told her that that’s all she ever does— get in the way. I mean, was I wrong?” He put his head in his hands and carded his messy hair roughly. “Augh! Why did I say that? Why the fuck do I say things like that out loud?

Lea searched him with his livid green eyes. For a second Roxas thought that Lea really was upset with him, but then Lea pulled him into his skinny arms and rested his chin on the top of his head. “We’ll either find her or we won’t,” he said. 

Roxas felt his shoulders slacken and he let go of a soft breath he hadn’t been consciously holding. What a realistic thing to say. He didn’t need unbridled optimism or reassurances, he needed the truth. He looked up into the crook of Lea’s neck, craning his to get a better view of his face. “We’ll either get out of here in one piece or we won’t,” Roxas said back.

“And either way, you and I are good.”

Roxas leaned back to get a proper look at him. Lea watched him, tilting his head.

“I mean. I forgive you for marooning me here, me specifically. Because you’re right, I’m only here for you.” It was a mean thing to say, but the way he said it made Roxas’ face feel hot in a pleasant way. “Jury’s still out on whether or not I even can, but if I absolutely  _ have to _ die I’d like to do it by your side. Preferably doing something heroic and flashy.”

“I’d prefer it if you didn’t die at all. And also never ever say something that shitty again.”

Lea laughed again and kissed Roxas’ forehead. “What can I say? The heroes of light are rubbing off on me.” 

Roxas shoved him away from him.

“Hey, assholes!” Xion waved from a couple dunes away, beckoning them. The group had veered and the two boys hustled to catch up.

Their walk was uneventful because Sora and Riku up ahead had cleared their path of heartless. They carved their way through the Realm as though they too were forces of nature. This suited Xion fine as they were quite rusty and Namine didn’t have command over a keyblade. They glanced at her on their left. Her expression was unreadable, which in it of itself was worrying. “We’ll find her,” they said.

Namine looked at them as if awaking from a trance. “I know. But what will we find?”

“What do you mean?”

She glanced at Aqua’s back, still leading their party. She was by far the strongest of all of them and she succumbed to the darkness. Kairi was a Princess of Heart, but Namine worried still. “Vanitas and that.. that  _ thing _ are on the loose. What if we don’t find her first? Or what if something horrible has happened to her?” She put her hands over her chest and grimaced as if pained. “What if something horrible is happening right now?”

“Look at us. Look at all of us and all the shitty, horrible, fucked up things that have happened to us all.” Xion nodded at Terra’s back. “I hear he killed his dad. And him, he was split in two by Xehanort himself. She was left here for ten years, Roxas got kidnapped like twelve times, and I— well, did I tell you about the time Riku convinced me to kill myself?”

“Riku did  _ what _ ?” Namine said, shocked.

“Yea, to complete Sora. He said all sorts of.. I mean, I still think about it, you know? Roxas was the one to do it. I  _ made _ him do it.”

“Is this supposed to be making me feel better?” Namine said, her voice higher than usual and the ghost of tears shining in her eyes.

“My point,” Xion said, shaking their head, “Is that we’re all together. We’re all here. When have we not been okay?”

“Right now,” She said, sniffling but smiling. “Right now we’re not okay.”

“We  _ will _ be. We’re heroes. All that stuff we went through, all the stuff we’re  _ going _ through will just make us stronger afterward. As long as we’re together we can weather anything. The heroes always end up okay, alright?”

Namine offered them a small smile. Xion knew they weren’t done. “We were just in Yen Sid’s tower. We were just on Destiny Islands and in the real Twilight Town eating ice cream with all of our friends. We’ll get there again real soon, I’d bet anything on it.”

“Yea,” Namine said half heartedly.

“Come on, Nami.” They touched the bottom of her chin and guided her to face them. Her eyes were still sparkling with tears that wouldn’t fall. Xion enveloped her in their arms and she stopped walking to reciprocate.

“I’m scared,” she admitted in their ear.

“Give all that fear to me,” Xion begged, and the longer they held each other the better Namine felt. The two of them were ships in the night during their time at Castle Oblivion, or in the upside down Land of Departure. The witch orchestrated Sora’s coma and the vessel was a ploy to make his sleep permanent. Their purposes were diametrically opposite, and yet the moment they saw each other across the sandlot in Twilight Town some sort of fuse was lit. They were two people that shouldn’t exist and that definitely shouldn’t have met— and yet here they were. Xion could actually feel a sense of ease pour into Namine. When they came apart the air between them tingled with magic.

Lea and Roxas walked passed them, Roxas holding Lea’s arm draped around his shoulders. Xion threw caution to the winds and put their arm on Namine’s shoulder. The witch gave her a coy look, tucked her bangs behind her ear, then looked down at her shoes. If not for the heavy atmosphere and the unmistakable stink of death and darkness, Xion could almost imagine they weren’t in mortal peril.  _ Again _ .

Lea glanced at the pair of them, nudged Roxas to get his attention, then looked again. Lea wagged his tongue obscenely and Roxas poorly suppressed a smirk. Xion flipped them off underhand so Namine didn’t see.

“I always thought you two would end up together,” Lea said to Roxas.

“Who. Namine?”

“No, no, Xion,” Lea said. Roxas wrinkled his nose with disgust and Lea laughed, “What, you wouldn’t smash?”

“Gross, they’re like my brother.”

Lea paused with his mouth slightly open. “Uh. Alright, explain?”

“They’re a Sora construct.  _ I’m _ a Sora construct.”

By now Xion was eavesdropping. “Talking shit about me?”

“Always, girlfriend. You’re actually a Ventus construct, Pop-Rocks. If we’re being technical,” Lea pointed out, gesturing to Ven’s back.

“So I guess he’s my brother too. I mean duh, right? Dude has my face.”

Xion smiled, amused. “So everyone with ties to Sora is a brother now?”

Lea snickered “Would it be awkward if I dumped you and hooked up with Ven instead?” Roxas elbowed him in the side. Lea had been Ventus’ friend a lifetime ago, before going through his various character arcs. Now he had the same attitude toward the wayfinder that Roxas did. It was a little strange seeing him, and he was definitely a bit too cheerful to tolerate as a constant companion.

“It makes sense,” Namine said. “Sora, Ventus, Roxas, and you are birds of a feather, you know?”

“You forgot Vanitas,” Roxas said and he immediately wished he hadn’t. He didn’t know where his compulsive urge to ruin every vibe check came from, but thank Merlin for Xion and Lea who were professionals re: riffing off of his nihilism.

“He’s adopted,” Xion and Lea said together, and then loudly, “JINX!”

“SHH!” Aqua hissed from ahead. The wayfinders were looking grave and at once the humor was sucked out of the air. 

“What’s happening?” Lea said in a low voice, taking his arm back from Roxas.

“Did we lose Sora and Riku? Have they found Kairi?” Namine said, her anxieties trickling back in. Xion moved protectively in front of her.

“Look,” Aqua whispered, “Down there.”

The nameless creature knelt before them in the dirt. Somewhere along the way, the group had lost sight of the boys and had stumbled upon the amalgamation instead. Aqua held Terra and Ventus’ shoulders as the three of them watched. It was burying something and arguing with itself. Back and forth like two at war over their religious convictions. 

“What’s he saying?” Ventus whispered.

Roxas drew his keyblade but Aqua shot him a warning look.

“We’re wasting that thing, right? Please tell me we’re kicking its ass.” Lea said and Terra made a gesture to silence him. 

It was as if he hadn’t even been present for their last fight. That thing made quick work of all of them,  _ together _ . It had to be Xehanort or some incarnation of him that lingered in this plane of existence— that Vanitas did to Sora was unforgivable. Still, they couldn’t just rush down there. Their best chance was to study it and learn whether it had an exploitable weakness. “Aqua. We follow it,” he said under his breath, “The rest of you keep looking for Sora, Riku, and Kairi.” This was their mess. Vanitas did this and he was a shadow of his best friend. 

Ventus couldn’t have predicted any of this of his evil alter ego. On top of that, there was no reason why the stopra shouldn’t have worked on Ventus like it had on he and Aqua. Venlooked and acted exactly the same as ever, young, sixteen, and naive as hell. “I’m coming with you guys,” he said, just like Terra knew he would. Namine bit her lip.

“Please,” she said, sounding scared, “we shouldn’t split up.”

Terra turned to her, looked her in the eye, and reached his hand out to her. Uncertain, she took it and he said, “I swear to you, I’ll look after them.” He nodded at Aqua and Ventus.

“We’ve only just gotten to know you guys—“ she said, looking around for support.

Xion glanced at the creature still kicking up sand. Magical tornadoes of dark earth marked the spot where the troubled amalgamation paced. “You know us getting out of here depends at least in part on us defeating that thing. Maybe if these guys follow it, whoever it targets next will have some backup.”

Namine turned to Aqua, tears in her eyes again. Aqua pulled her into a hug and the girl folded into her like rain into snow. If their minds were made up there was nothing to be done but wish them luck.

  
  


As Kairi walked, supporting Vanitas became easier and easier. Adversely, Vanitas felt worse than when he was eaten by the giant heartless. “Where are we going?” He grunted. He tried to sound tough, but it was clear that he was in pain. From  _ what,  _ neither of them were sure. He had no open wounds but he was burning up and growing more sluggish with every meter traveled.

“Kingdom Hearts,” Kairi said confidently. “It’ll know what to do, how to balance this whole mess. If we can find it, we can open it.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Vanitas knew for a fact that Kingdom Hearts wasn’t in the Realm of Darkness. “How stupid are you?”

“Smarter than you, apparently. Did you know there are actually three Kingdom Hearts’es?”

“Listen, if you’re just going to start making shit up—“

“—You saw one of them. I saw  _ two _ of them. I know you saw one because a lot of my training with Yen Sid was learning about Master Xehanort. Which meant learning about you.”

“Okay, yea, I saw it,” Vanitas hissed as she settled him on a nearby fallen log and stretched her arms. He recalled the Graveyard and the great storm. He remembered possessing Ventus and forging the X-blade for the very first time. He remembered seeing that heart shaped blue moon breech the spiralling clouds and feel the immense gravity of power radiating from it. His flesh had burned from its awesome brilliance and then— “Only for a second, and then the fuckups fucked everything up.”

“You mean you got destroyed by the power of peace and love?” Kairi asked smuggly.

Vanitas shot her a filthy look.

“I know another somebody who got killed by a blast of peace and love too. Ansem the Heartless. Kingdom Hearts killed him with pure light. A different Kingdom Hearts than the one you’ve seen; this one’s a huge door floating between the edge of darkness and the end of the world.”

Vanitas’ expression went from snarling to dubious. “You’re making this shit up.”

“The guy was on your side, you’re telling me you never talked to him about his goals, or whatever?”

“Us villains aren’t exactly on the best of terms,” he said and slumped dangerously where he sat. He nearly fell but Kairi caught him by the shoulders before he could pitch head-first to the ground.

“Whoa,” she said, concern etched all over her face. “Are you alright?”

He wondered how much she could possibly love Sora to treat  _ him _ with such tenderness. “Kairi, I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he confessed dizzily. Such thoughts were foreign to him. The absence of anger had curdled, or perhaps every other feeling that weighed on him now wasn’t as simple as anger. He saw Kairi and judging by the look on her face, he didn’t look good.

“We have to keep moving,” She said and she hauled Vanitas to his feet again. She was nearly carrying him. He was weak enough to need it.

“Oh God,” Vanitas groaned.

“I can tell you all about the Kingdom Hearts’es,” Kairi offered, trying to distract him as she walked. “I’ll tell you everything I have in my notes. I used the colorful gel pens and before my sister, Namine, and I were separated from each other, we would draw pictures on every page.” Vanitas hung his head but said nothing, allowing her words to wash over him, to numb his brain to the dull pounding in his chest and skull. “The Kingdom Hearts you saw was the biggest mother of all Kingdom Heartses. It’s the repository for the hearts of men and the hearts of worlds. The hearts of men make the Kingdom Hearts that Xemnas was after. The hearts of all worlds make the Kingdom Hearts that Ansem’s heartless was after.” Kairi met Vanitas’ eye and saw interest there. “The heart of all worlds, the door version of Kingdom Hearts— It’s. It’s at the End of the World. I know there’s a way into the End of the World via the Realm of Darkness because that’s how King Mickey and Riku got out.”

Miraculously, Vanitas had no trouble following her logic. She laid it all out for him like Yen Sid did for her and Lea. The thought of him and Sora and Riku made her heart ache, but she was no help to them as she was now. She had to come back with answers, with a plan that she  _ knew _ would work. She couldn’t face their disappointment if she failed them again. Roxas was right, she needed to become stronger.

“Why did you give up the powers of darkness?” Kairi asked him, unable to contain her sudden bolt of curiosity.

He didn’t even need to think about the answer. “Aqua,” he said, “And... Sora. They...” He felt stupid even saying it to himself, so he didn’t admit it out loud. Sora had made him feel like family and he had a shot at becoming friends with the wayfinders. All wouldn’t be forgiven so easily but now that Xehanort was gone, didn’t he owe it to himself to try? Pain shot through his chest and he clutched it; Kairi pressed no further. 

The terrain was getting treacherous. Chunks of sand broke into oblivion over a bottomless black void below. She was fearless the last time she was here because she was surrounded by the two people she trusted most who were only trying to protect her. Riku had his flaws, but she knew he’d never do anything to hurt her. Sora might’ve been the naive underdog, but she knew he’d never give up on her. This time  _ she _ was doing something, half dragging this kid who was Sora but with an annoying amount of muscle and attitude. And she was  _ protecting _ him. 

It got to the point where they had to jump from patch of land to patch of land. Soon, they were out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by inky black darkness. “It should be here,” she mumbled, leaving Vanitas on a larger formation to wander the smaller adjacent ones. 

“It’s not.”

“It has to be. My notes weren’t wrong, I’ve been here, I’ve seen it.”

“Maybe Ansem’s Heartless did some sort of ritual to unlock the appearance of this.... doored version of Kingdom Hearts.” Kairi looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he added, “Maybe he had to say alakazam or trigger some sort of dark power to get it to show up.”

“Trigger some sort of dark power?” Kairi repeated.

“Or something,” Vanitas said, lying down. He lifted his armor and felt his stomach. It was slick and tender to the touch. His face was drenched with cold sweat. Kairi went to his side. There was nothing for her to do but sit there with him. He was dying and they both knew it. “Tell him I’m... you know.”

“I’m going to need you to say it, Vanitas,” Kairi prodded.

Vanitas hesitated. He hesitated for so long that Kairi figured he would just ignore her and leave it at that. Eventually, and barely moving his lips he said, “Apologize to him for me.”

Kairi gave him a small smile. “Yea. Definitely.”

She touched his forehead to push his bangs away from his pale face when her palm started to feel warm. The familiar glow of her Princess of Light magic grew from inside her and her eyes went wide. “Vanitas,” she breathed, “please, let me try to help you.” She wouldn’t touch him if he didn’t want to try. The light might be just as excruciating as the last time, but it might also save his life. They wouldn’t have many opportunities to try. This was it.

That’s why they call it a leap of faith.

He nodded feverishly and she grasped his hand firmly in both of hers. Light spiralled and crawled from her fingertips to his skin. It tingled, and then it burned, and then he felt nothing at all. The darkness in him fluctuated, as did the light in her. She couldn’t control it. The wild magic bucked and the light was split into columns of light and dark. Kairi yelped, and then screamed. Vanitas magically immovable and then—

Kairi blinked and thought she’d gone blind. Really, she was on her back staring up into the maw of nothingness stretching as far as the eye could see. She turned to find herself still on that disembodied sand dune beside Vanitas who was still evidently passed-out. Was she just passed out? She sat up and deduced that: yes, she had probably been passed out. She definitely felt post-passed-out.

“Impressive light show,” a multitude of voices said all at once, “And here I thought it would be difficult to find him.”

Kairi turned to see the foggy outline of a dark shadow swimming over to meet them. It got larger and larger the closer it got. Kairi summoned her keyblade— only it wasn’t  _ her _ keyblade. It was hers, but with a charm and a look she’d never seen before. The Realm had granted her this. She knew it instantly because it was dark and sleek and sharp, like a more delicate Oblivion. The hilt was wreathed in pink quartz, teal malachite, and blue sapphire stones. She didn’t have time to be excited about it, just stunned when it appeared dazzling in her palm as the creature continued to advance. “Stay back, I’m warning you!”

“I’m loving these odds,” the multitude of voices said in horrifying unison, and then each voice laughed mechanically, staggering and layering over each other in a way that made Kairi try to cover her ears.

“Count again!” A new voice said, and then a blonde boy leapt onto the scene. Behind him, imposing and regal, stood Aqua and Terra. Kairi’s heart leapt in her chest at the sight of them.

“We’re coming, Kairi!” Aqua yelled, and a blink later she was by her side with her keyblade in the air, blocking an incoming attack from the shadows. Kairi jumped because she hadn’t seen it move so close. “You have to fight this. You have to  _ fight _ .” Aqua put a hand on Kairi’s shoulder and a pulse rippled through her.

Aqua recognized the signs in her. She was falling down the path of darkness. Her hair was shock white and that extended to her eyebrows and long lashes. Her keyblade glittered wickedly, and yet she seemed almost the same. She hugged herself in the aftermath of Aqua’s touch and cried out. “Guys—Vanitas—“

He was crumpled in a lifeless heap nearby. The voices cooed and the creature crept toward him. “He’s dying. You’re dying.  _ We’re all dying _ ,” the amalgamation sang maniacally.

“I’m not losing anybody else,” Kairi decided. The creature rushed her and together with Aqua she created a defensive magical wall. The creature gleaned bodily off of it, roared, and jumped high in the air. “Not to you, not to the darkness! Never  _ ever _ again!” She bounded after the creature, Aqua and Terra hot on her heels.

The chaos roused a sleeping Vanitas. He hauled himself up onto his elbows and vomited black sludge. The weakness he felt extended to every part of him, but his self-preservation was still mercifully intact. This overrode the excruciating pain he was in and he managed to distance himself from the fight. He scrambled to his feet and started to trot against the heavy sand, from floating mass to floating mass until two spots swam into view.

“Sora,” he wheezed. He couldn’t really see him, but he knew he was there. He knew it had to be him. His heart knew it. “Sora..”

The two dots moved closer and morphed into the shapes of people. They were no more than blue and red blurry outlines on the horizon. “Vanitas!” Sora. He sounded angry, but they didn’t have time for that. 

“Sora, Kairi. Kairi is—“

“Vanitas, what did you do!”

The steel point of Riku’s keyblade touched the bottom of Vanitas’ chin, lifting his head. He forced a pained gulp. “Kairi’s in trouble. You have to come help,” he managed, and Riku’s hand lowered just a little. Sora glided forward, grabbing Vanitas by the shirt.

“You have about 30 seconds to start making sense, Vanitas,” he warned, but he was already prepared.

“I’m sorry,” Vanitas confessed, “I’m sorry I— but Kairi needs you, she’s there—fighting that.. that...  _ thing _ !“ He pointed and finally the two boys noticed the flashing lights and the sounds of a struggle echoed in the distance.

Riku looked unconvinced, but Sora didn’t need to hear more. He let go of Van immediately and pushed passed him to the place he pointed. Kairi was there, and she was more important than all of this. Riku spared Vanitas one last menacing look before running after him. Vanitas fell to his knees, watching them leave.

“Darkness looks swell on you, Princess,” the shadow said as it swung an elastic limb toward Kairi. She parried with her black blade and spun into a new attack just like she’d seen Ventus do.

“Everything looks good on me!” She shouted back, kicking it full in the chest once given the opening. It flailed into Terra’s grip. He held onto it and Aqua rained magic down on the amalgamation. Just when it was starting to look like they all might be able to escape or even overpower this sucker, it summoned the X-blade. Black sand shook free of it as it appeared. Ventus gasped and dashed just in time to avoid a point blank blow.

“Merge, merge, merge!” It cried, and then one of the softer voices shifted to the front, “No, we can’t— this... this isn’t how we fix things.” And then another voice, a female voice, was clearest amidst the choir, “We need them. We need them to understand!”

It leapt forward and plunged its claw into Ventus’ chest. Terra screamed but it was too late, the creature. Bounded forward, passed Aqua and toward two boys rolling up late on the scene. “We need to make them all understand!” The amalgamation screamed and reached for Sora, its shadowed hands growing tenfold in size. 

Sora went on the defensive. Riku jumped off of his shield and threw himself at the monster, knocking its head all the way around. Its smile never faltered and its eyes independently swiveled in every which direction. 

“Kairi!” Sora shouted.

“Sora!” Kairi answered. They ran to each other. The discorporated ground began to quake.

“He tore you in half,” The amalgamation shouted at Ventus, his voice now added to its arsenal of stolen voices. “He manipulated you into killing your own father.” Terra held out his arm protectively in front of Ventus.

Ventus touched the spot on his chest where the amalgamation’s hand had clasped him. A sudden burst of understanding hit him. “Let it touch you!” He called across the void. 

Aqua’s head snapped to look at him as though he’d gone crazy. 

“It’s  _ not _ Xehanort,” he called. Ventus was sure of it. Of all the heroes, he was probably the most familiar with Xehanort’s presence. Afterall, the man had been his master once. In his heart of hearts he knew it wasn’t Xehanort— maybe it wasn’t evil at all

It threw its head back and crowded into the endless sky. “You think you all have a chance against me? You cannot kill intention. You cannot slaughter an essence. You cannot hide your feelings.” It laughed raucously, maniacally, and the ground threatened to send them all spiralling into the abyss. In one quick fluid movement it was at Ven’s side once more. It knocked Terra aside as if he were a flea and grabbed Ventus in dark tendrils spilling from its chest. Ventus gasped and reached out, but a wink later and its body constructed of darkness swallowed him whole.

Terra roared and Aqua started to run towards it. Riku dashed forward as well. The only ones who weren’t moving were Sora and Kairi holding each other and watching the battle as if it were an unfolding dream.

“Don’t fight me,” Ven’s voice said from within the dark form, turning to Terra, “embrace me.” But the other voices laughed in a chaotic stagger. It began to rise, flames coming into its hands and spreading to the streams of darkness pulsating around it.

A pinprick of light glimmered from above. Streaks of light came pelting toward them. It was Roxas, leaping from the sky with both of his keyblades drawn, followed by Xion and Axel. The three of them struck one right after the other, landing in a triad beneath the demon. 

Aqua ran to stand by Terra followed by Riku. All of them were knocked prone when the amalgamation spun around again. It had grown so huge that the floating specs of sand keeping them from plummeting into darkness were pulled into its orbit. They all quaked. Riku struggled to hold onto the side of his own platform and Xion and Lea had run into each other midair. 

Sora, who was far enough to remain standing, was the creature’s next target. It swiveled toward him and bent to collect him in it's terrifying grasp. Kairi summoned her dark blade and sliced through the air with ferocity she’d never known before. The creature’s hand slid off of its forearm like she had taken a warm knife to butter. It rocked back and all of its voices screamed. The realm trembled and Sora looked aghast at his now white-haired badass girlfriend still standing her ground in front of him in spite of the earthquake. She jumped into the air, following it and slicing towards its face. The blunt end of her weapon gleaned off of its cheek and it howled. Kairi came spiralling back down. Sora’s heart leapt into his throat as he watched her, but she spun in the air and angled herself as if taking aim.

She fell onto the dune carrying Riku and grabbed a fist full of his jacket in time to stop him from slipping sideways. Her keyblade dug into the ground, rooting them to the spot. Sora was so transfixed by the way that she was moving that he didn’t notice the demonic creature hunch right over him.

“Sora!” Kairi and Riku cried together.

But it was too late. “Embrace me... Please... You’ll understand,” the creature said in Ventus’ voice. Sora, horrified and frozen from fear just shielded his face with his forearms and cried out. He was gone.

The creature crashed like a wave onto the sand of the floating dunes. It grew in size and roared. Something blazed in its deep blue eyes. “ _ Understand! _ ” It pleaded. It swooped after Xion next, collecting them in its massive claw and dropping them into the center of its chest as easily as if it were picking fruit. Namine cried out, but the creature, now three parts light and two parts darkness, slowed to a crawl and wailed. “It isn’t our fault,” it said.

Kairi sprinted forward with tears in her eyes, Riku scrambling after her. Aqua and Terra held out their blades. The amalgamation spun around, searching for Roxas. Its eyes landed on the boy and it galloped forward on all fours. Before it reached him, Vanitas had appeared out of nowhere and blasted it right in the nose with fire magic. Roxas grabbed him as the creature reeled back and they both scuttled out of the way. “Ru—!” Vanitas started to shout  _ run _ , but the creature had seized him, dragging him backward effortlessly. 

“ _ We are not what  _ he _ has done to us! _ ” The amalgamation wailed, the voices so loud and so many that it was almost unintelligible.

“Roxas! Portal!” Kairi called from his right.

Wildly, he manifested one and tumbled inside. The creature forced itself through as well and just as suddenly as all the chaos had started, it was over. 

Because there was no exit portal anywhere on the battleground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo this took SUCH a long time like.... a lot of it has been just sitting in my gdocs since october. I just got stuck figuring out how to get to the endgame ykwim? Anyway enjoy the cliffhanger see you in another month lmao
> 
> At most this thing is gunna be 10 chapters, but I might cap it at 8 or 9? We shall see.


	8. Closure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Understand...

Roxas hadn’t been thinking of a destination other than “away”, but then it didn’t end up mattering. He yelped, lurched backward as the creature's massive claw grabbed onto his jacket. They both careened through the curtain into the hallway of light, and as they did so, he felt his magic shake— felt it all the way down to his bones.

“Let me merge or I’ll kill us both,” it promised in Vanitas’ hateful growl.

The amalgamation had him in its tumultuous grip, and Roxas could do little more than scream. He lost what little balance he had and went spilling onto what he’d later come to realize was hard, white stone. They weren’t in the Realm of Darkness anymore, in fact he felt  _ blinded _ by the light. The creature above him seemed to absorb it like a black hole, shrieking as it pinned him down and sunk straight through him. The last thing Roxas remembered was the overwhelming feeling of being suffocated. Then he, and four others opened their eyes, and he finally understood.

There they lay on the ground, trapped in a shell created by sheer will and the manifestation of the X-Blade. The X-Blade which had reappeared suddenly, a hammer on their chest, weighting them down, though they held it’s hilt in their taloned grip.

_ Xehanort.... _

It wasn’t so much a presence, but a lingering shadow. An aftertaste that stained the blade and lived inside every one of them. Perhaps,  _ all _ of them. Every iteration of Sora and Ventus was there, Vanitas and his liquid rage, Roxas and his unfiltered confusion, Xion and their immeasurable melancholy, and then.... Sora, and his unbridled optimism. And where it all started: Ventus and his tremendous heart. As they lay there, they all came to realize a few things. First, that they were no longer in any danger. That the X-Blade was in the hand(s) of its rightful heir at last and that the monstrous will that had possessed them was quiet now that they were all together. 

Second, that the creature didn’t exist at all. When Xehanort bequeathed the X-Blade to Sora, all the pieces of his heart outside his body claimed some ownership, too. They were whole now... somehow. The transfer was finally, _ finally _ complete. Their body ached and trembled, Xion and Ventus wept. It had all been them. Their unresolved feelings and shared trauma. Ventus had once been Xehanort’s student, but through his evil plots, he’d suffered for over twenty years. Vanitas was born of hatred and pit against the only family he’d ever known in the service of a man who didn’t even care for him. Roxas was used in much the same way by a version of Xehanort that had no heart. Xion was concocted by an iteration of the man to keep Ventus’ heart sealed away in Sora, a lock box, a pawn, a puppet in  _ his _ show. Xehanort had bequeathed the X-Blade onto Sora, but did Sora hate him? Didn’t they  _ all _ hate him? Wasn’t this creature just a husk for that hate?

Lastly, they realized that they were vibrating at different frequencies. One by one, they started to peel away from each other.

  
  
  
  


“Roxas?” Lea said, and then a little panicked, “Roxas?!” He looked frantically around for an exit portal. When he saw none, he almost went weak with fear. “Xion!?” He ran toward the shimmering curtain, but it shrunk as he approached. “No!” The desperation in his voice broke Kairi’s heart.

It had been her idea— had she fucked everything up?  _ Again?  _ She didn’t know what would happen when Roxas was absorbed or eaten or fused with that...  _ thing _ , but she knew he had been the last piece. She was winging it just like everyone else—and frankly, if she made the wrong call three times in one day, she might have to throw in the key. She sprinted toward the flowing portal, watching Lea get swept up to the other side. She made to follow him, because of course she would. Sora was on the other side. Not a thing in heaven or hell could stop her.

Riku made it through the portal before she’d gotten there. Naminé was right behind her, she could hear the way her flip flops beat against her heels as she ran, and then—

WHACK.

Kairi bounced bodily off of the portal as if it were protected. A shield erupted around it for the moment that she made contact, and it was getting smaller all the while. Naminé gasped and went to her knees beside Kairi, lying sprawled in the dark sand. She shouted her name, she could see it on her lips; but her ears were ringing from the collision. Aqua swam into view and so too did her voice.

“Kairi! Kairi are you alright?”

She shook her head and when she did, her hair had finished its transition into shock white. She opened her eyes and they were a pale blue, brimming with tears of anger and frustration. “No, I’m  _ not _ alright!” She cried. “I’ve— I’ve ruined everything! I always ruin everything.”

Naminé looked at her, stunned. “Kai..”

“Where did they go? How... how could he go somewhere where I can’t follow him? Why do I  _ keep _ being left behind?” She screamed and held her ears as if giving voice to these insecurities that had haunted her for ages was deafening.

Aqua knelt on her other side. Where Naminé played the part of the worrying sister, Aqua was a knight. She was.... imperial, almost scary. She looked Kairi dead in the eye and said, “You’ve succumbed to the darkness within.” 

That shouldn’t have been possible. Kairi was a Princess of Heart. No darkness could ever touch her heart, let alone corrupt it all together. And yet, she knew it was true the moment she’d heard it. She slumped, defeated, watching the curtain ruffle and fade right before her very eyes. “It’s too late...” She moaned.

Naminé held her shoulders. She had probably been about to say something rousing when Aqua beat her to action. She slapped Kairi across the face.

For a beat, everything was still. The shock of what had happened made Kairi momentarily forget her desperation. She goggled at Aqua, aghast. “You are darkness. That portal is light. And on the other side are our friends. Ven. Sora. Riku.” Aqua bit her lip. “You don’t have time for this. You need to let go.”

Kairi struggled to understand. She was already done. This Realm had had its way her and she wasn’t getting into that corrior, no matter how hard she ran into it. Aqua reached out to her, but this time, she was holding both of her hands. 

“I was full of darkness and despair too, once,” She looked over her shoulder at Terra standing stoically by her side, watching the curtain wearily, and also like he was itching to run through it. To Ven. She was, too, but she wouldn’t leave anyone behind. Not in this place. Whatever was on the other side, they’d face together, or they wouldn’t face it today. She watched in horror as the portal, now a mere shimmering light in the air, nearly faded away entirely.

Kairi looked down at their hands, looked up at her sister whose eyes were shining with tears. “ _ I _ would never leave you behind,” Naminé said, and the second she did, Kairi’s heart thrashed violently. That was true. She spent so much time lamenting the wrongs, that she never appreciated the givens. Naminé was a given. There was never a time where either of them were truly alone. How could Kairi be darkness, when the other half she’d created was so full of hope?

“That’s it... What else?” Aqua glanced at Kairi, and then back up at the space where the curtain swayed. Color bled into the roots of Kairi’s hair. She hadn’t seen but the looks on the other girl’s faces alerted her to some sort of change. “Come on, you can do this...  _ hurry _ .”

“I’m—“ Kairi paused. Useless? Worthless? Unworthy of Aqua’s faith in her? One look in her pleading eyes and she knew that couldn’t be true. She wouldn’t allow herself to disappoint this woman. This woman who saw the world of potential in her when she was just a girl. This woman who made it possible for her to follow her friends... her love, into the abyss. She wanted badly to chase after Riku and find Sora— to be together, fight together. If she lost herself here, Riku would be all alone. Her heart beat hard again, so hard that she put both hands to her chest and winced. Something was wrong... but... she could finally get to her feet. Naminé helped her. As long as she lived, she could count on Naminé to be there to help her when she fell.. Kairi felt Nam’s strength rush into her. “I’m fierce... And loyal... And I.. I was just doing my best. I was just trying to get them back.” She swallowed and turned toward the fading portal, wandering cautiously toward it this time. Electricity crackled at her fingertips when she moved to touch it and she drew back. Not ready.

“I’d do anything for my friends. My heart is my strength and... and I’m more than my mistakes. If I lived my life fighting for what I know is right,” she squeezed Naminé’s hand, “then I know I’d have lived a good life.”

She reached out again. This time, the magical barrier didn’t stop her, but the portal had finally, torturously winked out of existence. She blinked back her disbelief and tears clouded her vision. She had been so close. “No,” she whispered.

“We’ll find them,” Aqua managed, after a long pause.

Kairi was transported back to weeks earlier when Riku had said that very thing to her when Sora faded away beneath her fingers. Only then, at least she’d had Riku. Both of the loves of her life were on the other side of that portal, and they were here in the Realm of Darkness. Stuck, because they wouldn’t leave Kairi behind.

She skipped over self-loathing and right into furious frustration. “No,” she said again, “No, no.  _ No! _ ” The same species of rage that had filled her worlds earlier when she was a pixie filled her now. In that moment she turned white— entirely white, wielding the power of— not darkness, or light, but her  _ own _ powers. Neutral, human, fallible powers. She looked down at her hands and noticed that her gloves, her skin, her dress were blazes of dazzling light. Tendrils of magic dripped off of her and she knew what she must look like: the opposite of Sora’s anti-form. Wait ‘til he got a load of this!

Getting to him was her next goal. With magic and will in her heart she threw her keyblade to the sand and pried the void apart with her bare hands. A new, shimmering curtain appeared exactly where the old one stood. She hadn’t expected it to work— and honestly she had utterly no clue where this would lead, but she had to go through it.

Kairi gasped and nearly fell over again with the weight of her relief. She reverted back to normal, her tones washing over her like a breeze. “Thanks, Tinkerbell,” she breathed, and she grabbed Naminé, nodded to Aqua, and stepped through.

  
  
  
  
  


Lea had been first on the scene. And what a strange scene it was. The floor echoed at his every step but felt more solid and formidable than any material he’d ever come in contact with. From what he could tell he was in a plain white room that stretched further than his eyes could see or perceive. There were white columns in neat rows reaching in every direction. The city seemed infinite, as did the ceiling which simply disappeared into a distant luminous haze. For a wild second he wondered if he had died. Shockingly, Riku acted as his grounding wire, appearing at his side a minute after him. He too was taken aback by the new surroundings at first. He shielded his eyes just as Lea had, as if all the white were a blinding spell and not just the aesthetic of the place. “Where the hell are we?”

“You got me, man,” Lea answered. That was when they saw the amalgamation. They spotted the creature which had more than tripled in size since their initial fight. The boys had never dismissed their keyblades and so they started toward it cautiously, weapons drawn.

Voices whispered from just beyond the closest columns, making the hair at the backs of their necks stand up. There were people here, but they looked more curious than dangerous. Lea caught a flash of a girl running from one column to another and hiding behind the skirt of an older woman. Riku turned just in time to see a man staring right at him before he slipped out of sight again. They moved like apparitions, or optical illusions; as soon as they tried to focus, the harder they became to spot.

Stranger still, the creature on the floor was unmoving. The X-Blade was on its chest. Riku reached it first.

“Where’s Roxas?” Lea said, a note of thready fear in his voice.

“He’s here,” said a familiar voice from below.

The two boys looked down and jumped backward in alarm as Xion extrapolated themself from the black figure. They were a mirage for a moment, standing as if that were a perfectly natural thing to do. They stepped away from the husk and turned to it. Xion bent to reach back in and came away with a set of hands. As they stood, the hands graduated to the full torso of Roxas and he stood, too. Both of their expressions were neutral, but that changed when Lea threw his arms around them both. 

“Oh shit! Oh fuck!” He said, “Don’t you two dare scare me like that again!”

“Same time next week?” Roxas said on Lea’s left shoulder.

“Wouldn’t miss it for all the watermelon at the beach,” Xion confirmed from his right. The fact that they were teasing was a good sign and lifted Lea’s anxiety instantaneously.

Riku was staring transfixed at the amalgamation as another body blossomed from it. Sora rolled onto his feet headily. Riku caught his arms and steadied him. As soon as Sora looked up and saw who he was, he crumbled onto his chest. “Riku,” he sighed and smiled. He felt safe for the first time in a long time. He couldn’t describe it, and certainly couldn’t justify it considering all that they’d just gone through, but it was true in his heart. “Riku,” he said again, and reached for him.

He had to go on his tiptoes to reach the corner of Riku’s mouth with his lips. His momentary incredulity melted into reassurance and they embraced each other. “Are you okay?” Riku whispered, so close that he could count Sora’s every eyelash.

Sora gave him a withering look.“Would be if you stopped talking.” They kissed properly for the first time, there in this strange new world.

The shadowy figure of the amalgamation billowed on the ground. “That doesn’t look good,” Roxas pointed out. Behind them, the curtain of light faded out of existence, and for the first time Lea noticed that Kairi, Naminé, Aqua, and Terra were still on the other side. 

“That’s not good either,” he said quietly.

Neither of them were right.

Less than a minute later the portal swung back into view, and with it came the four. Not only that, but Kairi looked entirely herself now striding in hand-in-hand with Naminé.

The dark figure on the ground opened so that Ventus and Vanitas could rise from it together. They held onto one another,  _ helped _ one another. The shock of that alone made Terra freeze. Aqua put her hands over her mouth to hide her hopeful grin. 

“Is this... are we in... the Realm of Light?”

What? Did that made sense?

“There’s a such thing as a Realm of Light?” Roxas asked, but then he caught sight of the unlikely embrace and stopped talking. Somehow the situation felt too tenuous to be sullied with words. Realm of Light, shealm of shmight, Vanitas wasn’t trying to eviscerate Ventus. That was almost a bigger deal.

“Aqua,” Terra started.

She took his hand and kissed his knuckles. “It’s okay... It’s going to be okay. This is where hearts go to heal. This is where the healed live in eternity.” A girl’s giggle wafted on the air from a nearby column.

“But we’re not healed,” Vanitas said. Cryptic, pessimistic, entirely within character. What was disturbing was what Ventus said next.

He turned to the group at large. “None of of us are.” The words rang true in them all.  _ None of us are.  _ Echoing against their souls. The two boys stepped away from the massive lifeless body on the ground. Now that no one inhabited it, the X-Blade sunk into its dark flesh like a brick on a pile of pillows. “That... was our hate brought to life.”

“But we..” Vanitas said, trailing off.

Xion picked it up, “took it back.”

“What?” Lea looked shocked and confused as did Riku, Terra, and Naminé. All the others, and even Aqua seemed to work out what was going on.

Sora walked over to Kairi at last and held her, and she folded into him like rain into snow. “You guys,” he said, addressing them all, “We have to confront what Xehanort did to us. To  _ all _ of us. We can’t move forward if we don’t reconcile our past.” He sounded emotional, his voice wavered. Sora chewed his bottom lip and spoke this time to the husk on the ground. “Evils. I can’t forgive you for what you did to Kairi. For what you put me and my friends through. But I am stronger than what you’ve done to me. I know that now, beyond a shadow of a doubt.” He held out his hand and closed his eyes. In it

Appeared the Keyblade.  _ His _ keyblade.

In a whoosh of sparkling light and magical energy, his hair was pushed back and the blade in his hand gleamed blue and silver and yellow and red and every color he could imagine. He exhaled in relief, and Kairi, still against his chest, could feel his heart quicken. He’d done it. Finally for the first time since the graveyard... He wasn’t using Vanitas’ blade or Roxas’, or possessed by the terrible maelstrom of the X-blade. No matter what the Masters all said about him, despite his faults and failures— he was worthy. He made himself worthy by knowing it and not seeking it... He could almost see Yen Sid smile in his mind's eye as he listened to the warm thrum of the Kingdom Key in his hand.

The place where the creature’s face had been cracked audibly and began to dissolve. A charred and broken mask crumbled into oblivion.

“I’m more than what you used me for, Xemnas. And I deserved better than to be tricked and lied to, to be a villain,” Roxas turned his chin up, curling his lips in apparent disgust. After a moment that expression softened somewhat. “I forgive you,” he said breathlessly, as though it had cost him a great effort.

The creature’s shoulder broke apart and faded into the skyless sky.

Xion steadied Roxas and held his arm. “I  _ am _ supposed to exist. I  _ do _ exist. And my real friends will always remember me. You were  _ wrong about me _ . You were wrong about the way you made me feel about me.” Their voice quaked. Another piece clattered noiselessly off of the husk and disappeared into nothingness.

Ventus walked over to Terra and reached up to put a hand knowingly on his shoulder. “But.. I wasn’t—“ he began, but Ventus was shaking his head. 

“You have to,” Ven pleaded, “we all do. Terra, it has to be us.  _ Especially _ us.” He gave meaningful looks to both him and Aqua.

Terra swallowed. He wasn’t prone to tears as some of the rest of them were, but he did feel uncomfortably fragile as all of their eyes fixed on him. Ven had put him on the spot, but it turned out he had something to say. “I can’t forgive what you’ve done. Eraqus.... I... killed... Eraqus...” He spoke slowly, each word a piercing pain in his heart. “Because of you. I can’t forgive you. For possessing me. Forcing me to fight Aqua. I will die before I forgive you.” And yet, another piece cracked and stumbled off the husk’s form. It vanished in a dramatic plume of black swirling energy just as the others had, despite his refusal to forgive. Forgiveness wasn’t the point.

“Our bond was stronger than you. Everything you put me through made me stronger than you, Xehanort.” Aqua almost whispered the name, as if saying it loud enough would raise him from the dead. “I’m afraid every day, because of you.” she admitted tenderly, “How could I ever be the same? You robbed us of our lives, stole our youth, our Master, and twisted so many destinies around your mad schemes,” She looked around and found all eyes on her. “But now we’re stronger.”

The chest of the shadowy figure wheezed as it caved in. The X-Blade slid onto its side, no longer supported by the bits and pieces of the ruined mannequin. “We have to keep going,” Ventus urged. Behind him was Vanitas, silent as the grave and watching each piece slough off, a mix of horror and respect on his face. The clang the heavy blade made on the pearlescent floor made the nearby onlookers gasp and move, but none was close enough to pose any sort of threat. This was their monster— all of theirs. They had to keep going before focussing on the next disaster.

“I died a hero, but because of you, I never got to live as one,” Lea said. He remembered the heat licking his body, his billowing cloak. He remembered the surge of power he expelled to save Sora, Donald, and Goofy from certain death. He collapsed and with his dying breath he sent them to The World That Never Was, but every step he took before that was one in the wrong direction. He remembered Ventus and Isa, the friendships he’d had before that pretty faced Terranort swooped in and ruined his life. “I’m making my own second chance, in spite of you.” Lea spat bitterly on the ground. “And if you try to fuck it up, we’ll all be here to squash you back down like the scum that you are.”

Naminé licked her lips nervously and Kairi knew she wanted to go next. She squeezed her hand again and put the other one on her back in a way that was meant to be comforting. “I’ve been... hurt, played with, used against the one person I thought could save me,” she said. Here, she looked at Sora and there were tears sliding down her cheeks. “Not a day goes by that I don’t feel guilty for that. I thought I was being punished. I thought...” Naminé’s voice got too thick in her throat to go on, and she buried her face in Kairi’s shoulder. Xion floated over and stroked her back soothingly as she cried. A small piece, the left hand dissipated. 

Kairi gritted her teeth. “It’s just like you, Xehanort, to leave behind an impression when you die. You couldn’t just  _ die _ like any other being, you had to terrorize us; to burrow inside of us and turn such a thing into a weapon. Your heartless hurt Riku, trapping him in the Realm of Darkness. Your Nobody hurt Naminé and.. Roxas,” They caught each other’s gaze for the first time. Kairi knew why  _ her _ expression was sheepish, but couldn’t work out why Roxas’ was. She went on, stepping toward the mannequin now that Naminé was crying safely in Xion’s arms. “You were pure dread for all of us because of a  _ question _ you wanted answered. You involved us all in a war that made us grow up and lose each other.” Aqua was nodding. Terra tightened his jaw. 

“You were strong, but you lost your way. You lost your right to bear the keyblade. If anyone isn’t worthy it’s  _ you _ . All of you.” Kairi pointed a trembling finger at the dummy. She spoke now to Xehanort, Xemnas, Ansem the Heartless, and every other version of him rolled into that lifeless creature. All of that baggage and misguided intention was a scar on each of their souls. It was no wonder that Xemnas nor the Heartless was able to use a keyblade.

Riku put his hand on Kairi’s shoulder. Her tremulous rage sapped from her in that instant and her hand stilled. She held his hand on her shoulder and Sora came to put an arm around her waist. All that pain and horror was ebbing now. What a difference a Realm makes...

Sora and Kairi looked at Riku expectantly, and he knew it must be his turn. He’d tried not to think about the paths he’d taken that had led him here. He’d made so many mistakes of his own verition, but he made just as much as a pawn to the darkness. He’d been cruel and brave, reckless and calculating, manipulative and noble. “I don’t know who I am, without your influence,” he admitted throatily. He felt Sora and Kairi stirr beneath him and tried his level best not to look down. His voice dialed back because he was ashamed. “I don’t know which parts of me are good and which are... unredeemable. You showed me just how capable of great darkness I am. Even though I’ve changed, I’m... Scared, too.” Riku caught Aqua’s gaze on accident, but he was glad for it. There was understanding there. Empathy, though not pitying. Not judgemental. She gave him a small nod, a silent understanding, one Master to another. 

“You taught me that I have to take responsibility for my own actions. You weren’t my Master, you weren’t even my ally, but you taught me so much.” Being possessed by Ansem’s heartless had given him insight on how the heartless maneuvered. Thereafter, he reasoned if he didn’t want to get hurt, he’d have to move like one of them; those quasi-mindless entities that  _ caused _ hurt instead of receiving it. “I’m a Master now, and... I’m not sure I deserve to be.” Hands touched his face, but he still couldn’t look down. He closed his eyes instead and felt tears squeeze out onto his pale eyelashes. He held Kairi and Sora close to him. He was done talking.

“You do,” Aqua’s voice said to him, echoing. She sounded like an angel. Riku could almost imagine her to be one in his mind while his eyes were closed. “I’ve never met a young man more worthy than you. You have something Xehanort never did... love. And light. And  _ trust _ , in and from your friends.” She was getting closer, he could hear her walking. When he swallowed and finally opened his eyes, she was right before him. He chanced a glance down into the deep blue eyes of Kairi and Sora, who beamed and smiled. He let them go so that he could bow to Aqua, but before he sunk low in that stance, the woman collected him into her arms and squeezed him tight in a new hug. She too was a Master; one who had questioned her worthiness for nearly two decades. He hugged her back, squeezing his eyes shut again. Riku heard the telltale crackling and fizzling that meant his turn was over.

Ventus walked right up to the crumbling clay creature from Terra’s side and gritted his teeth at it. “I don’t know who I am because of you. You tore me. I was half of who I was meant to be and now all of that time is just... gone. I’ve always needed protection from you, but... fuck that. Fuck you,” he said with a quiet, trembling rage that didn’t suit him. Aqua and Terra looked stunned, but not as stunned as Vanitas, who had stopped circling the group to stare at his twin. “I could have stopped you. At the very beginning, if I were strong enough I could have stopped you. If I were... smarter, if I knew what you were doing, I could have—”

“No,” Vanitas interrupted him firmly, “This is him. He made his choices. We had no choice.”

The two of them stood there, opposed, Ventus in his regret, and Vanitas with his rage and guilt.

“Neither of you deserved that,” Sora said into the pregnant pause the two of them had allowed between them, and although he had just shouted the obvious, it touched them both so deeply that they broke their gaze on each other and focused instead on the boy. The boy who had sparked the chain of events that saved almost all of the lives Xehanort had put into peril. Van and Ven looked at each other again. The second to final piece cracked away leaving the X-blade prone, momentarily amidst the dark swirling smoke of the disappearing body part, and then bare, gleaming innocently on white marble floor.

In that moment Vanitas and Ventus started to glow and hum with the same flurry of energy that had engulfed Terra and Aqua when the Stopra was released. Their bodies were changing in the blink of an eye. Everyone was pushed by a gust of wind so forceful, some of them had to shield their eyes with their arms or turn away, but Sora was closest. He saw the whole thing unraveling like a movie played on fast forward. Vanitas’ dark hair grew down past his shoulder blades but his bangs were still spiked and recognizable. His costume stretched seamlessly with him, perhaps a part of the dark magic woven into it. Ventus wasn’t as lucky. His pants turned to shorts and his tank top now showed more than an inch of his belly above his waistline. He was a man though, taller (though not as tall as Aqua or Terra, Sora could tell). Sora groaned inwardly; did that mean he was going to be short his whole life too? Ventus’ hair didn’t grow as long but almost to his shoulders. He had hair on his face and a good natured— albeit confused— look in his eyes. He looked down at his forearms, and then at his legs, his eyes widening. 

“Is this... have I..?” He stammered. Aqua had her hands over her mouth again and Terra was forward in an instant to congratulate him. Vanitas was sure he would be ignored and made his mind up to move toward the X-Blade but Terra turned toward him before he could even start away. “Way to go,” he said, and Vanitas sensed he was being earnest. “Truly.” It was awkward between them. Between all of them, frankly, considering how many times he’s tried to kill them all, and pretty recently too.

Vanitas was shocked into speechlessness, which suited Terra fine. Neither of them had to make a big deal about it, but now that his feelings were his own and no longer a dark mirror of Ventus’, Vanitas found that... he  _ did _ admire Terra for his ability to dance in the light and the dark.

  
  
  
  
  


Nearly the whole creature was gone now. All that remained was the X-Blade and, strangely, the mannequin’s right hand, cut off mid forearm. “What gives?” Asked Roxas, but Lea had a cloudy look of understanding when he saw it.

“I think I know who that’s for,” he said, picking it up. It was solid to the touch and it radiated disappointment, an aching yearning. Lea knew at once his hunch was correct and resolved to carry it. As he didn’t want to field any questions about it, he changed the subject. “How the hell are we getting out of here? And what are we doing with that?” He pointed ludicrously with the listless hand in his grip. The X-Blade still gleamed on the white marble floor.

“It must be disassembled,” a new voice said, “Neither the forces of light nor the denizens of darkness deserve access to such power.”

Everyone gave a start in various ways. Up until now the extra presences were disembodied voices and the suggestions of people hiding behind nearby pillars. This voice belonged to a figure in a long, pastel purple robe. The voice boomed out above them. There was an androgynous quality to it, and the figure’s gender and identity were hidden beneath a mask with a tiger’s face. They wore a beaded necklace and their hands were hidden beneath their long, thick sleeves. 

Riku and Roxas crouched slightly, like cats ready to spring. Terra moved protectively in front of Aqua and Naminé, but the figure didn’t seem to notice. Or perhaps they did and they simply didn’t care. They held out a hand and pointed at the gleaming blade. It rose into the air and twirled slowly in their midst.

Sora and Vanitas exchanged a look but allowed this to happen. If anyone could rival a stranger’s claim to this blade, it was one of them, but neither of them  _ wanted _ custody of it anymore. Responsibility and power went hand in hand, and so much about both of them was altered just holding the thing. “Who are you?” Vanitas demanded. He was the first to bring his keyblade into things, summoning it, swinging the business end toward the stranger.

The figure hesitated, as though considering what to say... how much to tell them. “A friend, Hero of Light.” They said, and that startled Vanitas so much that he put his blade down.

With a flick of their hand, the X-Blade turned over faster. From the bottom it started to dissolve just like the amalgamation had, except these were bursts of light and color. When it was gone, they spoke again. “It will be another thousand years before it is summoned again,” they decreed. “Come, heroes. Someone here is quite anxious to see you all.” The mysterious figure turned and started walking away.

“We’re not... we’re not following them, are we?” Lea, from Roxas’ right.

Roxas shrugged.

“You have any other plans?” Riku asked as he strode passed. He had a point.

Dumbly, the group followed the stranger, passing identical rows of brilliant white. As they walked, it looked and felt as though they weren’t moving anywhere at all. Infinity stretched beyond them on all sides... until it didn’t. A large window swam into view, and before it sat two figures on its sill. They hadn’t noticed their approach initially, engrossed in something between them.

As they got closer, Aqua gasped. Ventus had to rub his eyes. Vanitas almost stopped in his tracks.

“Master Eraqus?” Terra called experimentally.

The man called Eraqus looked up from his position at the window. The other man moved a piece on the board between them, taking advantage of his momentary distraction. “You’ve found me,” he said calmly. He looked exactly as he did the day he died, right down to the ponytail and the goatee.

“Oh my God,” Aqua said shakily.

The figure in the purple robe stepped aside and the wayfinders moved forward. One by one they knelt before their old master. Eraqus chuckled.

“Such formality for a ghost? I’m sure this is a first.”

“Old friend, it’s your turn,” said Xehanort on his other side.

Eraqus looked thoughtfully at their chessboard, then rearranged the piece Xehanort had moved when he hadn’t been looking. “There’s no honor in victory if it isn’t a fair victory.”

“Says you,” Xehanort smirked.

“I’m sure my cohorts would agree,” Eraqus said, laughing again.

This was.... insanity. This was surely what insanity felt like.

Vanitas stared at Xehanort, aghast. Unconcerned that he was now surrounded by the crew who had ended his life; unconcerned with the profound effect he had on each and every one of them. Unconcerned with what they’d just had to reconcile with in his aftermath. Vanitas’ head was about to explode.

Void Gear was back in his hands before he realized he’d meant to summon it, and then it came crashing down on the chessboard between the two old men. They jumped in mild surprise, as if a troublesome cat had batted something off of a counter. “I’ll kill you,” Vanitas promised, swinging to face Xehanort, “I’ll  _ kill _ you.”

“You already have,” the old man said, “I feel as if a fourth death would be... redundant.” The blasé in his voice made Vanitas want to rip him to shreds.

“You could die a thousand times and it wouldn’t be enough.”

Eraqus held up a hand to stop Vanitas, but he wasn’t beholden to any master anymore, and he certainly wasn’t stilled by the same respect that did Aqua, Terra, and Ven. He shoved Eraqus aside, leapt over the table and grabbed Xehanort by the ruff. There was a huge commotion around him— Aqua and Terra helped steady the old man and Ven shouted, scrambling after him, and Sora as per his usual, was doing his best to mediate— but Vanitas had always been impossibly fast. “If you find contentment in this place, then this place is evil. It’s  _ evil _ for helping a selfish, evil prick like you!” 

Sora and Ventus both were fighting to wrench Vanitas off of Xehanort, but their hearts weren’t really in it. Xehanort apparently was powerless to stop this grown iteration of a mistake he had made from forcing him to kneel and pinning him painfully to the window bench. Rather, there  _ would _ be pain if pain existed in this place. 

It was Kairi who appeared at their side then. She wasn’t trying to extrapolate Vanitas though, who’s hand was plunged ineffectually through Xehanort’s chest. “Vanitas,” she pleaded, “It has to be okay that he’s here.”

Vanitas snarled and slashed at the old man before him. He made no noise, his expression didn’t change. He made no moves to defend himself and the claws that were so often Vanitas’ close range weapons of choice tore through his red leather cloak over and over again. There was no screaming, there wasn’t even any blood, just Vanitas and the sounds of his fury.

“It has to be okay. If he can find peace that means we all can.  _ Him _ , who’s done too much evil to even quantify,” she reached up and grabbed one of Vanitas’ wrists. He caught her eye and his lip twitched, his eyes were wide and red. “If the universe can forgive him, it’ll forgive _ us _ , don’t you see?” She nodded tearfully because she believed with all her heart that she was bad sometimes. Bad luck, at the very least. She was responsible for the destruction of her world— but it was Xehanort, too. She was responsible for the destruction of Destiny Islands— but it was Xehanort, too. Vanitas was responsible for maiming and torturing his brother and his friends all his life, a weapon wielded against his enemies—  _ his _ enemies. It was Xehanort. It wasn’t right, and it wasn’t fair, but if the universe forgave Xehanort then there was hope for all of them. Their worries and fears about being good people  _ made _ them good people, made them strive to be better. “We just finished letting him go,” Kairi reminded Vanitas, “Fuck him. Think of what’s in store,” She poked his chest with a finger, “for  _ you. _ ”

Vanitas was breathing heavily. He snarled at Xehanort and lifted him to his feet. Without his power, he really was just a bug-eyed frail old man. He maintained a dignified expression throughout, but there wasn’t anything he could do. Either of them.

“I’m dead, Vanitas,” Xehanort said stonily, quietly, “And you’re not.”

Vanitas looked as though he was about to be sick. He released him, turned, and kicked the chess table, scattering the fallen pieces even further. Eraqus winced and Aqua clicked her teeth, but Vanitas ignored him as he stomped away, Ven and Sora chasing after him. Xehanort looked down at Kairi, who held her head a little higher, set her jaw, and pointedly walked away as well.

Naminé was talking with the robed figure in the caricature tiger mask. Kairi made for her, hovering by her side and innocently listening to the conversation. Naminé beckoned for her and held her hand softly. She looked a lovely mess, covered in dark sand and smelling like the sea, but Kairi had never seen her look so disheveled. Right as she was wondering how they were all going to get out of here, the robed figure was saying,

“Your power to reach anyone connected with Sora has grown since your ordeal. The power was slow to build— It took you a year to return his memories, did it not?”

“Yes,” Naminé answered.

“Such a feat would be simpler for you now, and now you can sense him through worlds. You can also sense those tethered to him the same way.”

“I don’t understand...”

“The ranks of Heroes of Light grow with every passing year. Even when we have dwindled to zero, we find ways back to the fold and to each other. Naminé. You are in a true body, no longer contained by nobody limitations, and you have the strength to reach your friends on other worlds.”

She bit her lip. “I don’t have that kind of power.”

“You do  _ here _ .” The figure gestured to the radiant realm. Now that Kairi thought about it she did feel strong here. Stronger than she should feel considering how many times she had stumbled and fallen during this journey. There was always safety in the lull before danger. She could count on a solid two hours before the next big dramatic thing rocked the world and threatened to kill her, but being in the Realm of Light felt different. She’d always believed the world she lived in was the Realm of Light. What was their solar system, then? A cluster, a middle space, a proving ground between the Realm of Light and the Realm of Darkness?

The image of the figure began to warble. “This place doesn’t want to receive you yet,” the robed figure said. “This isn’t the right time for. For any of you. Concentrate, Sorceress.” 

“ _ Sorceress? _ ” Naminé gasped, turning red. She was too old to have such a reaction to positive attention but she was used to the isolation that came with the name “witch”.

“Concentrate,” the figure repeated, blinking and flickering in and out of view. It was like they were behind a fire that was making everything around them blank. Even Aqua, Terra, and Ven were looking around in alarm as Eraqus stuttered from view. It was clear then that they didn’t even get two hours this time. The next dramatic thing was happening right now, to all of them.

Naminé went from flattered to panic until she realized that it was just the people and not the realm falling out of view. Their giggling spectators were all gone, they suddenly realized, and Xehanort had disappeared too. 

“I love you,” Eraqus told the wayfinders

“Be strong, my brave girl,” a voice said in Kairi’s ear. She took a deep breath. Her grandmother.

“Two daughters,” another voice said, a female she’d never heard before except in dreams.

And then a male voice, both familiar and unfamiliar. “Beyond our wildest dreams. I can’t wait to watch them grow.” Kairi’s mother and father, who died when she was very young. The girls squeezed each other's hands while Naminé tried, psychically to reach out. But... “Who isn’t here?” Naminé said, opening her eyes again to find a dazed looking Kairi shrugging beside her.

“Isa,” said Lea suddenly. A few of them turned to him, marveling at how obvious an answer that was now that he’d said it. “Frankly, there should be more than an arm left of that monster whatever— for the whole organization. All fourteen of us. Ienzo was just a kid, you know? But...” he paused, “It’s Isa. He’s the last one.”

“I can only find heartstrings of  _ Sora’s _ though,” Naminé said uncertainly.

“I’m a heartstring because of Roxas. It’s possible to be a heartstring by association.”

Ven and Roxas exchanged a look with each other; Ventus even opened his mouth and raised a finger to argue this point, but the conversation moved on too quickly.

“Just try it, alright?” Lea snapped.

Naminé gave him a huffy look, but closed her eyes and tried obediently. She could feel them all surrounding her. The wayfinders were a little further and no one was directly by her side but Kairi, but with her eyes closed it felt like being hugged by a strong, close beam of light. She sharpened her focus and realized that if she tried she could separate each of them. They were each of the heroes: Sora, Vanitas, Ventus, Roxas, Xion, Kairi, Aqua, and Terra. Far, far away was a similar light, a similar warmth. She twitched, grimacing. “Really far away,” she mumbled.

“We’re going to be stuck here forever,” Lea decided, resigned.

Ventus shook his head, “We’re not. You’re right, Isa’s the last one, but you’re wrong about who he’s connected to.” 

Lea blinked, having almost forgotten that the three of them had met, three or four lifetimes ago.

“She’ll find him,” Ven said, more to himself than to Lea. He stood from the window bench and crossed to Naminé, collecting her other hand in his. “She’ll find him.”

“Probably not all that encouraging,” Kairi started, but Naminé’s eyes flew open and her hair was pushed back by a gust of wind.

“It’s— It’s—!!” she said, agast. “Roxas!” He hurried to her side, bewildered. “Hold my hand, we’re going to make a Corridor of Light together.” Roxas nodded mutely and did as she asked, because she had a wildness in her face that he’d like to see her into. She thrust their hands forward and from Roxas’ fingertips blossomed a new billowing curtain. Naminé beamed at it, and then at her friends, her family. “Come on.” And without any further ado, she confirmed her grip on Kairi’s arm, squeezed Roxas’ hand, and walked through, out of the Realm of Light and onto....

  
  
  
  
  


A manicured lawn freckled with yellow and red flowers. Gyroscopes and other whirring contraptions were littered on the grounds, huge jungle gyms for Keybladers in training. There were huge stone walls leading north to a sparking, floating tower in the distance, wreathed with more metal. They were close enough to hear a river in the distance. Behind them stood a wrought iron gate and the moors beyond. “Here... we’re... in the right place.”

Kairi and Roxas had no reaction to stepping through this corridor. Neither did Lea who came next, or Riku and Xion who wandered in after him. Sora’s eyes widened with recognition here and he immediately thought of how much he missed Donald and Goofy. Vanitas however, froze at the mouth of the portal. Ventus collided with him and the two boys fought each other in the entryway until Aqua pushed them easily apart and walked past them. Aqua could see why Vanitas would hesitate however. “The Land of Departure,” she sighed pleasantly. The last time they were all here, they were in the audience chamber aaaaaall the way up in the tower, but Roxas and Naminé had brought them to the outer gate that led into the woods. “What are we doing all the way out here, though?”

Terra had a hand on her waist as he looked around. His face was weary as if he wanted nothing more than to go lie down for a week. Aqua couldn’t blame him, in fact, she felt much the same. Still, never split the party. Naminé said, “This way,” and gestured to the gate. Aqua opened it with a wave of her magical hands, and they were off.

“Land of Departure,” Riku said, “Isn’t that..”

Terra answered him. “Where we were trained, yes.”

They walked up the path together in a line. Just when Roxas had fixed his mouth to ask what they were supposed to be looking for, a pointed rooftop crested the hill that they were hiking towards. A tower grew from there, and another turret, and another. Particles falling, floating into the sky, shimmering with magic against the early sunset. The Mysterious Tower. Curiously, the soil around the base matched that of the outlands exactly. The funny plants surrounding the base of the tower stretched across the glittering moors. There was a river at the tower’s south face that trickled merrily, louder and louder as they approached.

“The Mysterious Tower? Yen Sid’s place was part of  _ this  _ place?”

Aqua shook her head with some uncertainty. “There was a canyon here, I’m sure of it. That’s Autertetur right? That river?” She pointed.

Terra tilted his head. He hadn’t been here since the memorial for Eraqus and before that, it had been a century it felt like, but he did remember a canyon. Was this the place? Aqua was the smartest woman he knew so he had no trouble believing her. “This is ..weird,” he concluded tiredly.

“To say the least,” Xion agreed, and they all picked their way toward the tower. They met nothing along the way, no heartless or nobodies or unversed. It was nice to walk in the sun, all of them minus Isa— though if Naminé’s friendship senses were to be believed, they would find him in that tower...

Sora opened the door, and since he had permission to enter, the heavy wooden fortified door moved easily at his touch. They climbed the many staircases until the very last one, the grand marble one that led to the study, that was straight where the others were spiraling, tapered off at the top. There were slabs of stone floating away from it as if it were still in the process of blowing up. “I did this?” Vanitas said and whistled. “Damn. I’m a badass.”

Kairi rolled her eyes at the back of his spiky black head. “How are we going to—” she started, but Roxas and Lea were already sprinting up the falling chunks like an experts. Sora leapt after them and the three started to race to, ah she could see it now ahead: what looked like a chamber, still ludicrously intact and hovering feet above the ruined staircase. 

Riku offered his hand to Kairi, “Need a lift?”

Kairi smirked. “No, thanks,” she said and she took off after the boys. Way earlier, back in Neverland she had the picture of what her ideal adventure might be. Now, that vision had changed to this, right here. All of them. Even Roxas wasn’t so bad after all. He laughed over his shoulder as the other two gained on him.

Naminé took Kairi’s offer and swung onto Riku’s back as he started off up the rubble. There was no platform at the top of the stairs so Roxas leapt at the knob and twisted it, scuttling inside. Ungracefully, Sora and Kairi poured in after him. It was Yen Sid’s office though exposed to the sky. Where Vanitas’ explosion had left everything in chaotic disarray, the bricks were now arranged in patterned swirls. The top of the tower was still a bit singed from its last encounter with Vanitas, but magic had made it look decorative and intentional. Perhaps Yen Sid couldn’t fix the damage yet, or perhaps he liked how it looked. The wizened old man wasn’t there. Instead, Isa sat in the big blue chair with his fingers steepled, a look of deep disgust on his snobbish face.

“Oh good, I thought you idiots would never find it,” He said bitterly, though a few of them— Lea, Roxas, Xion, and maybe even Naminé could tell that he was relieved. Isa got to his feet. “I’ve been sending out that beacon since I realized you were gone.”

Riku came into the room next with Naminé, and then Xion, and then Ventus and the other wayfinders. It was a steady trickle and with each addition, Isa’s expression grew nastier and nastier. “Next time there’s a field trip let me know, would you?” He’d never admit it but he hated to not be included. In fact, he had many complexes around it.

“Next time I blow up a tower and land everyone I’m with in the Realm of Darkness, you’ll be sure to get the e-vite.” Vanitas said, sneering right back.

The animosity slid off of Isa’s face and he started to go pale. “You were in the Realm of Darkness again? What for?” He looked from Lea to Ventus and then he glanced quickly at Roxas. “You’re alright?”

“Thanks to you,” Lea told him. He explained Naminé’s new powers, explained how she needed someone connected with Sora or Ventus to focus on. Isa was the only one and if he’d been with them, they might have been stranded forever. Then they took turns telling him about their adventure; they couldn’t help it. At first he tried to act prickly, still annoyed that he hadn’t come along, but he quickly realized it was not a journey he would have liked at all. He seemed interested in the part about the Realm of Light though and asked Roxas to show him a corridor of light. When they were finished, Aqua asked him how the tower came to be here.

“The magical wave that passed out of the Mysterious Tower caused some... weird stuff to happen in Twilight Town,” Isa said, “I was investigating and, you know, the Tower is quite close to Twilight Town. It almost orbits it. So I went to check it out and saw that everything was dissolving and upside down. I arrived and I _ had _ to use my magic to stabilize it or I would fall into the sky, you see. The Master Yen Sid was still spellbound, the moon and I righted and stilled the debris and the Master... well, I don’t know what he did. We were flying through space, I believe. It was as though we were in a Gummi, but that should be impossible for a  _ world _ to travel as such? But the tower is not a world, the Master said, it is a part of another world, a fissure that left in the era of darkness and remained hidden to them until Xehanort’s death. Between you and me, I think Xehanort and Yen Sid got into it in the old days when they were young men, and Yen Sid simply packed up his tower and left.

“We were flying fast and then suddenly we were floating, and then we landed perfectly in a large hole in the earth. There are three moons on this planet, did you know that?”

Aqua nodded, but Terra and Ventus looked dumbstruck by the explanation. So did Sora. 

“You’re telling me that the tower used to be part of—”

“The Land of Departure, yes, very good my boy,” Isa finished silkily.

“And where is the Master now?” Terra asked.

Isa looked him up and down and did the same to Vanitas, Ventus, and Aqua before continuing. “Teaching. He’s found his passion, I suppose, in boring young people to death over at the castle.”

“And you’re here because...” Sora said, not unkindly.

Isa raised one of his eyebrows. “Naminé and I have discussed her new powers,” he said evenly, and then looked at Naminé. She went on for him as he apparently expected her to.

“It’s true we have. I guess you put it all together, huh?”

“All of you went missing at the same time. It wasn’t difficult,” Isa assured. “All I had to do was be somewhere familiar and make sure my heart was open.”

Lea approached him, withdrawing from his [inventory] the right hand of the Amalgamation. It felt like stone before, but now it was like malleable clay, but it wasn’t melting nor deteriorating. As soon as Lea saw it he knew it had to be meant for Isa. He was his best friend and he’d abandoned him so many times before. Saix was Xemnas’ number two guy and when it came down to the wire he was nothing more than a soldier who took orders well, and cannon fodder. He had been Xehanort’s right hand all the years he’d claimed Terra’s body as his own and beyond. This piece was for him.

“What is this?” He asked, shocked as Lea brandished the creature piece at him.

“It’s the last of Xehanort. The very very last of his influence here on earth. It grew into something that ate Sora and Roxas, remember? It was... Look, you have to... to talk to it, and let go of your bullshit like we all did. Then, he’ll be gone forever.”

Naminé approached them then and more elegantly explained, “After each of us confronted our feelings about Xehanort, a piece faded away. I think Lea’s right. I think that piece is for you. And Saix?” She added suddenly, using his old name, because it was the old him that she needed to say this to, “I forgive you.”

Isa looked at her, his expression unchanging. Then, he put the creature part down on Yen Sid’s desk and smiled at Lea. “I’ll do it later, when you all aren’t gawking at me,” he said.

Just like that they were free to marvel at the sun which was now properly setting beneath the hills. In the distance to the west, a caravan trundled up the valley path toward the tower. The Master returning home after a week at the university. The tower was at home in this forest, perfectly camouflaged where in Twilight Town’s atmosphere it’s hues stuck out like sore thumbs if one could spot it in the night sky. 

Riku, Kairi, and Sora were in the faeries’ sewing room now, whose roof was also twirling magically in the sky high above them, leaving them to gaze at the stars flickering one by one into the night sky. Riku sat in the cushioned high-backed chair at the work table. Kairi was sitting on the desk and Sora was standing before them both, all three of them holding hands. “We have the power to find each other now,” Kairi said into the silence. Her eyes were glassy. All of theirs were. “As long as we have Naminé we can.. Can..”

“We’re with each other always,” Sora said, his eyes sliding from the sky to Kairi’s face, and then to Riku’s. This time, he didn’t even mean it as a metaphor. “That thing... can’t you feel it too? When Naminé was reaching out for Isa, couldn’t you...?”

It’s true, they felt... a little. A tug. A tickle. A premonition before the portal opened and revealed where they were. Naminé’s powers were sharper, no doubt, but they were all connected. At the end of the day, this would be them. This would always be them. They’d find ways back to each other. “A little,” Kairi admitted. 

Riku nodded. “I don’t..” he trailed off, biting his lip like he does when he stops himself from saying something negative. Sora put a hand on his shoulder and Kairi released his hand to card through his long silver hair. “Not as fast as she can. Not like that. Not without a portal and a strong gut feeling.” His insecurities tumbled out of him.

“I don’t mind waiting,” Sora said. More like teased. He nodded at Kairi. “Do you care if he shows up late?”

“No, I mean. What else would I be doing?” She said, smiling. It’s true, those powers were faint, but they did always find each other. “Let’s go home,” Kairi went on suddenly, and to their slightly stunned faces she said, “I need a nap next to you guys on a beach, not at a ridiculous wizard’s tower.” Those were the magic words. A nap on the beach just like when they were all kids sounded like heaven; even to pretend things were the way they were before everything got fucked up. Despite all they had endured and lost, it was a comfort and a constant that the three of them would always have one another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like,,,, don't we all deserve a happy and non-bittersweet ending guys? Sorry for that WAIT and thanks for sticking with me this long ! I've decided to end it at 8 chapters and not torture anyone else with my irregular ass posting.
> 
> ALSO if it wasn’t clear, in the Amalgamation chapter, Kairi of Pure Light and Vanitas of Pure Darkness shared parts of each other while Kairi tried to heal him. Ventus became neutral when they all merged as well and now they’re a normal mix of light and darkness like everyone else. And Vanitas was ill and not healing because he was considering the light, which was so opposed to his intended purpose and nature. Whenever he had a happy thought he would literally feel sick to his stomach (like zuko in that one episode of atla where he was the most emo boy) and it wasn’t fixable with a curaga because it was psychosomatic. 
> 
> I'm still in denial about the fact that square and disney are Definitely going to make a new Kingdom Hearts game, imo I thought the ending of kh3 was sad but great! This is just how I imagine things getting wrapped up but like without another whole ass game with Braig and evil whatever shenanigans he and those dudes in robes are up to, you know what I mean? Anyway I can't believe KH3 is the last in the series, what a franchise.

**Author's Note:**

> I plan on turning this into a comic! See WIPS and my other art on my twitter: @peterpretty 🌻


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